Sibanye-Stillwater looks to become major European battery ecosystem player

South Africa-based precious metals miner Sibanye-Stillwater is aiming to become a serious player in the European battery ecosystem throughout the entire value chain, Sibanye-Stillwater Chief Regional Officer for Europe Mika Seitovirta told S&P Global Commodity Insights March 17.

Sibanye-Stillwater is working on its European strategy and Seitovirta said the company believed it had identified the two states that are placing importance on critical raw materials, namely France and Finland.

The company is also looking to duplicate its strategy in Europe in North America, Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman told S&P Global.

The company's strategy includes its green profile, the battery ecosystems in Europe and North America and there were also starting to be tangible links to lithium from Finnish lithium developer Keliber being close to the market, producing and probably having one of the lowest carbon footprints around, Froneman said.

"Sandouville [nickel refinery] is the same and these two countries have very well-defined battery metals strategies and we're happy and privileged that we have positioned ourselves in these two countries and been well received," Froneman added.

The miner has paid off the final tranche of Eur5 million ($5.55 million) of its Eur30 million investment to hold a majority 30% interest in Keliber, which was first announced in February 2021.

According to a 2019 feasibility study updated in 2020, the company's 100%-owned Keliber lithium project in Finland's Kaustinen region has 9.3 million mt of ore reserves, sufficient for more than 13 years of operation, producing 15,000 mt/year of battery grade lithium hydroxide.

Keliber is due to have the first project with integrated lithium hydroxide production from 2024, with the company controlling the whole process from beginning to end, as well as controlling the CO2 footprint, Seitovirta said.

The project has access to 100% carbon-free energy, a low-emission soda leaching process and a short logistics route from Finland to customers in continental Europe, which Seitovirta said put together meant that Keliber would probably offer some of the greenest lithium hydroxide available, which gave the company an advantage if the European Commission set out a carbon tax on batteries.

In March, the miner also announced a Rand 425 million ($28.5 million) investment in French electric vehicle battery manufacturer Verkor, which plans to build a 16 GWh gigafactory in the Dunkirk region.

In February, it finalized its 100% acquisition of Eramet's nickel processing facility in Sandouville, France, which Seitovirta said provided a number of competencies and capabilities in areas where the company was traditionally not that strong.

"The same goes for Keliber, because obviously Keliber is not only a mining project, but also a chemical project and we start to learn through these capabilities also the chemical play of this industry, which is very important," he said.

He noted that Finland was building up their own battery ecosystem, as was France, with both looking to be active in the battery market and protect critical materials supply.

Not enough battery metals

"It's clear there are not enough battery metals to underpin the penetration forecast of battery electric vehicles and we have consciously decided for various reasons to be part of the ecosystems of Europe and North America and therefore we want to produce as much primary metal from those region as possible, but it's limited," Froneman said.

Looking at the European landscape and the demand-supply balance up to 2030, Seitovirta also there was not going to be enough material, which was not news, but was "dramatically less" than previously thought.

"From European suppliers to European customers, nickel sulfate, for instance, just to give you an example, there's going to be in 2030 less than 10% to be supplied from the demand if you take the current projects," he said.

"If you take lithium hydroxide there's going to be less than 50% provided that the projects currently in the pipeline are going to happen and there again, the question is the feed and there is no feed, so these types of forecasts are actually not sustainable and they are going to mean that also other technologies are probably going to be needed - maybe traditional technologies alongside so that the CO2 emissions will go down," Seitovirta said.

While there were many projects and initiatives going ahead at the moment, Seitovirta said not all would end up producing, but Sibanye-Stillwater believed the projects it was involved in would happen.

"Having said that, to spot the value in the whole supply chain means we look at other opportunities to grow as well. It's easy to say that we want to grow with lithium... We want to grow also with nickel, the interesting pockets there," he added.

While Sibanye-Stillwater saw interesting opportunities to grow with lithium, nickel and the different products that it is looking into, Seitovirta said it was also looking at recycling, which was due to be "very much the future."

"We are currently working with different opportunities and looking where to spot value," Seitovirta said.

"The market is moving very fast, so are we, but we are only looking at opportunities where we can clearly see we can understand it well and create shareholder value... the two positions we have in Europe is not the end station, it is the beginning," he added.