Latest news with #DeutscheBalaton
News.com.au
11 hours ago
- Business
- News.com.au
IPO Watch: Guinea style bauxite from WA – VBX lists today in a $10mn IPO
WA bauxite developer VBX will list at 11am AEST this morning $10m IPO included big name backers like Deutsche Balaton, Lowell and Terra Capital Flagship Wuudagu project promises Guinea-spec bauxite closer to the Chinese aluminium market In recent years among the biggest fears of Australia's resources industry have been that rising nations with cheap labour and newer, better deposits will erode the competitive advantage we've held for years. Nowhere has that been more stark than in the iron ore industry, where for years the soon to be producing 'Pilbara Killer' Simandou in Guinea has been the bogeyman for Aussie miners and the WA Government. But the newest IPO to hit the ASX boards this morning will be turning the tables, as VBX (ASX:VBX) charts a path to the bourse after a $10 million at 60c float. Over the past decade, Guinea has emerged as the premier bauxite producing nation in the world, responsible for 69% of shipments to the world's top consumer China. Australia ranks a distant second at 25%. But it falls flat compared to its Guinean competitors not just on quantity but also on quality for the aluminium feedstock. That is where VBX's Wuudagu project is a difference maker. Located in the Kimberley region on the very northern tip of WA, around 15km west of the community of the State's most remote permanent settlement Kalamburu, Wuudagu contains a 59Mt reserve, from which VBX plans to derive an average product grade of 45.4% Al2O3 (alumina) and 3.6% SiO2 (silica). That compares to high grade Aussie products from Queensland's Weipa region that have much higher silica impurities or the lower grade variety produced in WA's South West by South32 (ASX:S32) and Alcoa Corporation (ASX:AAI). 'That's the unique aspect about Wuudagu, is that it's essentially a Guinea spec product – 45% alumina, 3% silica – then you've got the advantage of being in Australia, low sovereign risk, (short) shipping distance to China,' VBX managing director and major shareholder Ryan De Franck said. Fan club That relatively simple story has helped the family-owned VBX, which as Valperlon Group progressed the proposed $125 million development as a private entity for over a decade, pull in a number of well known institutional investors. Wilhelm Zours' Deutsche Balaton, one of the most prominent small cap backers on the ASX has taken a 5.6% stake, while John Forwood's Lowell Resources Fund (ASX:LRT) was involved in pre-IPO seed rounds and now boasts 1.14%. Jeremy Bond and Matt Langsford's Terra Capital has also reportedly backed the float, which comes on the back of a price rise last year caused by a 12.5% lift in Chinese demand and supply outages in Guinea that pulled bauxite prices beyond iron ore to over US$100/t. Guinean bauxite prices have dropped back to ~US$74.50/t, while Australian prices have come back to US$70/t, according to the Shanghai Metals Market. But that remains high by historic standards, and above the US$65/t CFR (incorporating freight costs to China) used in a PFS by VBX that outlined a 10 year mine life shipping around 3.5Mtpa from a transshipment jetty on WA's north coast. All in sustaining costs come in at $54/t Aussie, generating average annual EBITDA of $143m. The plan is, should environmental and regulatory approvals come through in the expected time frame, to be shipping bauxite by the end of next year. A DFS is expected to be completed by the end of 2025, all funded via the IPO raising. "There's been a lot more interest in bauxite given what happened in Guinea last year," De Franck said. "The benefit of us doing the IPO, as opposed to other funding options that were available, is that you're going to retain all that strategic value in the project as we de-risk it over the next 12 to 18 months." Bauxite on the market VBX walks into a relatively small bauxite and alumina space on the ASX. The biggest producers on the bourse are Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) and South32, with Alcoa in the mix as well. But let's be real, you're in Rio Tinto for the iron ore and copper, and S32 will increasingly pivot to copper and zinc as the years tick by. For pure play alumina and bauxite exposure the options are more limited. Of those actively pursuing the space, Metro Mining's (ASX:MMI) status as a North Queensland exporter made it an attractive option to play the booming bauxite market last year. It's shares are up 60% over the past 12 months, giving the firm a market cap of ~$400m. David Flanagan's Arrow Minerals (ASX:AMD) was on the trail of a high-grade deposit once explored by Vale at Niagara in Guinea, but has been suspended from trade for close to a month after the West African country's military junta started pulling exploration licences off local miners. Western Yilgarn (ASX:WYX) posted an inferred mineral resource earlier this year for its Julimar West bauxite deposit near Perth of 168.3Mt at 36.1% Al2O3 and 14.7% SiO2 at a 25% Al2O3 cutoff. But at a 35% Al2O5 cutoff that becomes a more attractive 97.1Mt at 40.5% Al2O3 and 11.3% SiO2. That project is likely to get larger as exploration progresses, with WYX also securing an earlier stage but potentially high grade bauxite and gallium project 25km north of Julimar West at the Norcia project and the Cardea 3 project 17.5km east, where early drill results have delivered results exceeding 34.5% Al2O3 and averaging a low SiO2 content of 3.14%. Wuudagu, too, has room to grow, De Franck says. The project was first identified by BHP (ASX:BHP) in the 1960s and received relatively little attention for over four decades before VBX took it on. Around half of the tenement package remains undrilled. "We think that we've got additional bauxite within our licences that we want to test and explore and the focus this year is doing that," he said. " Having a resource update come out, we'll do an optimised mine plan based on that updated resource. "And then that'll kind of drive the annual production rate and the mine life as part of the updates DFS."
News.com.au
a day ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Geopacific gets a shot in the arm with St Barbara backing
One of Australia's top mining journalists, Kristie Batten, writes for Stockhead every week in her regular column placing a watchful eye on the movers and shakers of the small cap resources scene. Geopacific Resources (ASX:GPR) has got a busy six months ahead as it firms up the development plans for its Woodlark Island gold project in Papua New Guinea. The company is well-funded to complete the definitive feasibility study, having raised $40 million at the start of the year, which represented one of the biggest raisings by a junior in an otherwise bleak March quarter for fundraisings. The company will also complete a further 30,000m of reverse circulation and diamond drilling with the aim of growing the resource, which stands at 45.56 million tonnes at 1.07 grams per tonne gold for 1.56 million ounces. 'The intent of that is really to position ourselves by the end of this year, early into next year, so that we've obviously got a much better idea of the project economics and it's been de-risked, and we're also having more advanced discussions with either financiers or other mid-tier miners that see the same value that we do,' Geopacific CEO James Fox told Stockhead. 'We haven't decided exactly which way we want to go, whether or not we develop it ourselves, or whether we partner up with a group – I don't think they're mutually exclusive.' New major shareholder Geopacific's largest shareholder with 46.1% is Germany's Deutsche Balaton and Delphi, which are active investors in Australia's resources space. Another company backed by the German group, Patronus Resources (ASX:PTN), sub-underwrote Geopacific's $40 million raising, acquiring a 15.7% stake. Earlier this month, Patronus agreed to swap its stake in Geopacific with St Barbara (ASX:SBM), buying back St Barbara's stake in Patronus. St Barbara, which operates the Simberi mine in PNG, now holds 14.4% of Geopacific. Geopacific shares had been flat all year but are up 20% this month. Fox said he'd been in contact with St Barbara managing director Andrew Strelein in the past. 'We're figuring out how Geopacific and Woodlark can leverage off St Barbara's position in PNG, in terms of expertise, in terms of personnel, in terms of insights and whether or not there are any opportunities for us to collaborate, whether it be on a project or obviously, on a company wide basis,' he said. 'I think it'd be great to get some of their exploration team over to our project whilst we're drilling, obviously to have a look at some of the porphyry potential that we've been looking at, as well as the general program that we're currently working on.' While the political system in PNG is stable under Prime Minister James Marape, the government is looking to update the country's mining code later this year. 'Given that are operating there, it does allow us to leverage off some of their experience, in terms of negotiating with the state as well,' Fox said. Woodlark refresh A previous management team of Geopacific had pushed the button on a $225 million mine but halted construction in 2021 after spending $100 million, due to inflation, bad weather and the pandemic. Under Fox, who joined in late 2023, the company spent the first six months of last year applying the lessons learned from previous construction and preparing a new scoping study. The study, released in July 2024, outlined $326 million to produce 95,000 ounces of gold per annum at all-in sustaining costs of $1534 per ounce and all-in costs of $1820/oz over 12 years. Undiscounted life of mine revenue was forecast at $3.3 billion, while pre-tax net cashflow was estimated to be $1.3 billion. The study returned a post-tax net present value of $501 million, an internal rate of return of 37.7% and 18-month payback period. However, the study used a gold price of just $2900/oz, around 45% lower than today's spot price. 'Because the gold price has moved so much, so quickly, there's a huge amount of catch-up to play,' Fox said. 'And of course, what that does for us, and lots of prospective gold companies, it allows you to have a sort of a more critical look at your project and focus on the areas that are more profitable and the economics are better than just volume. 'It's not necessarily about producing as much gold as we can. It's about producing the most gold at the best cost.' The DFS will also look at increasing the throughput rate beyond the 2.9Mt per annum envisaged in the scoping study given more than 400,000oz of the resource was not included. 'It's much better for us to increase the throughput rate to maintain the same mine life, then bring the cashflow forward in terms of the project economics,' Fox said. 'If we do that, then we're up to almost a $1 billion worth of pre-tax NPV and an IRR of over 50%.'
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
German investor Deutsche Balaton has built an ASX empire, and it's backing this battery stock to the hilt
German investor Deutsche Balaton has built an empire of ASX resources stocks It's also branching out, holding a role as battery stock Altech's major shareholder This is how DB's Wilhelm Zours invests, and why Altech is one of its key ASX holdings Any clued-in observer of the energy market knows solar and wind power is just one part of the solution for green energy. Now mainstream technologies, the key is not solar panels and turbines, it's working out how to store that energy for round-the-clock power. With the growth in the rollout and usage of AI, experts expect to see a rise in the use of battery energy storage systems (BESS), allowing data centres to be supplied with a cost effective and steady base-load. While the battery market explores everything from lead-acid to sodium-ion, Altech Batteries (ASX:ATC) stands alone on the ASX with a game-changing chemistry using simple table salt and nickel powder – sidestepping costly, high-demand critical minerals. And the company's technology comes with a key backer in one of the ASX's leading resources investors, a major show of support from a backer normally known for providing the capital to turn lithium and gold small caps into major players. Founded and led by German businessman Wilhelm Konrad Zours, Deutsche Balaton has been a fixture in ASX resources investing for years. Its appearance at the head of Altech's register, with a combined stake across multiple entities of 16.5%, lends credence to the battery tech stock's growth story. Investor backing Deutsche Balaton's backing has gone further than simply holding equity. In a strong vote of confidence, the German investment firm agreed to a $4.28M loan facility in March to fuel Altech's CERENERGY and Silumina Anodes developments. By offering the loan in the form of a binding bond note subscription deed, Altech has been able to draw down the funds in the form of bearer bonds, with interest set at 7% per annum. Speaking with Stockhead, Altech chief financial officer Martin Stein said Deutsche Balaton has been a supportive shareholder throughout the years, first joining the company's register about six years ago. The synergies are even stronger than many of the firm's ASX investments, given Altech's plans to base its plants in an industrial park in Saxony, close to the European EV industry. 'Deutsche Balaton has provided capital and debt instruments to help finance Altech's objectives,' he said. 'From a geographical standpoint, being close to both of Altech's battery projects in Germany, I think the company can see the enormous potential of CERENERGY and the Silumina Anodes projects.' How does Altech's tech work? Without the danger of thermal runaway, extended durability and a broad operating range from -40°C to 60°C, Altech's solid-state chemistry dubbed CERENERGY sets a new standard for battery safety and performance in stationary storage solutions like grid infrastructure and data centres. Altech's other development, Silumina Anodes, is tackling one of the toughest battery challenges when using silicon in battery anodes, the issue of silicon swelling. During charging, silicon particles can expand by as much as 300%, causing swelling and fracturing that may lead to battery failure. It also tends to immobilise lithium ions, which can reduce overall performance and shorten battery lifespan. By using alumina-coated particles, Altech believes it has cracked the silicon code. Through in house R&D and by optimising the silicon content to 5%, the company has achieved a 50% higher energy battery with improved cyclability and battery life. In its push to bring patented technology to market, Altech has built a pilot plant next to the proposed project site in Saxony, Germany, where it is now successfully producing coated silicon for its Silumina Anodes product qualification. Broad ASX exposure Altech may have drawn Deutsche Balaton to its battery-tech plans, but the firm is active across a broader portfolio of ASX resources companies. Among its best bets was backing Azure Minerals, which netted the connected Delphi Group a $176m payout after the Andover lithium project owner's $1.7bn sale to SQM and Hancock Prospecting. Its other big investments include a 6.32% stake in critical minerals explorer Evolution Energy Minerals (ASX:EV1), owners of the Chilalo graphite project in Tanzania which is advancing towards FID. An updated DFS for Chilalo in March 2023 demonstrated a high-quality project based on average annual throughput of 500,000tpa at 10.6% TGC to produce 52,000tpa of graphite concentrate for downstream processing. The company recently unveiled a new strategic direction, focused on acquiring gold development assets in Africa, with the backing of its largest shareholder – Sustainable Resources Fund (ARCH). The German firm has also taken position in several ASX gold stocks, now reaping the rewards of a gold price near all-time highs at ~$5000/oz. Its portfolio includes 1% of Spartan Resources (ASX:SPR), having largely cashed out by selling much of its stake to SPR's now merger partner Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) in a strategic move last year. The gold developer had massively rerated off the back of its Never Never discovery at the Dalgaranga gold project – a reward for Zours and Co.'s patience having backed the firm back in its desperate Gascoyne Resources days. Also in WA and PNG's gold fields it holds major positions in Matsa Resources (ASX:MAT) (~19.6%), Patronus Resources (ASX:PTN) (42.35%), and Geopacific Resources (ASX:GPR) (~46%). Over in PNG, a move from St Barbara to acquire the holding of Deutsche linked PTN in GPR could open up more M&A value creation for the German money men. It's also active across other commodities like high purity alumina (HPA) with a 6.17% holding in Impact Minerals (ASX:IPT), the developers of the 80% owned Lake Hope project in WA. Lake Hope has a measured resource of 730,000t grading 25.8% alumina, or 189,000t of contained alumina, providing strong assurance that it can support the proposed 10,000tpa HPA plant over a 15-year period. This resource will also underpin a maiden probable or proven reserve subject to ongoing mining studies, test work and economic studies to be completed as part of the PFS currently underway. Deutsche Balaton holds a 21.7% stake in Tivan (ASX:TVN), giving it exposure to vanadium and fluorite, along with copper-zinc through a 2.3% stake in Orion Minerals (ASX:ORN).
