Aim-listed Bushveld Minerals has entered into a definitive agreement for the sale of its Bushveld Vanchem business to Southern Point Resources (SPR) for $21.3-million.
Bushveld Vanchem owns the Vanchem vanadium processing plant, in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province.
Another transaction, which involves the purchase of Bushveld’s 64% equity interest in a subsidiary that owns the Mokopane Vanadium project for $3.7-million, remains on track.
Bushveld announced on September 11 that it had entered into a binding term sheet with SPR regarding a proposed package of inter-conditional transactions which, if successfully concluded, would provide a cumulative investment by SPR (and its affiliates) into Bushveld and its group companies of between $69.5-million and $77.5-million.
The SPR investment was agreed to be structured as an interim working capital facility, totalling $8.1-million, an equity investment of $12.5-million in Bushveld, a new marketing and sales agreement whereby SPR will carry out all marketing and sales of product on behalf of Bushveld, effective January 2025, and a medium-term trade finance working capital facility up to $30-million.
A future investment by SPR of between $7-million and $10-million in Vanchem will ensure Kiln 1 is recommissioned.
SPR agreed to buy 50% of the shares in Bushveld's subsidiary that controls the Vanchem vanadium plant, and 64% equity in the subsidiary governing the Mokopane project, for a collective investment of $25-million.
Meanwhile, Bushveld has also initiated a sale process for its stake in CellCube, which is a grid-scale and microgrid energy storage battery manufacturing company headquartered in Austria. It is also known as Enerox.
The sale is in line with the company’s plans of simplifying the business and focusing on its core assets.
Bushveld also completed commissioning of the Belco electrolyte manufacturing plant, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, in August, with initial product having been distributed to international customers for qualification and compatibility testing prior to issuance of orders. This feedback is expected in December.