Battery materials regain M&A spotlight

AIM-listed Bacanora Lithium (LON: BCN) announced Thursday it has agreed to a $264.5 million acquisition by its offtake partner, Ganfeng Lithium.

The deal was highlighted by correspondent Paul Harris who recorded Kitco Roundtable podcast on Friday with Mining Audiences Manager Michael McCrae, editor Neils Christensen and special guest Mark Fellows, co-founder of and director at Skarn Associates.

This year most of the big deals in the metals space have been battery materials. McCrae noted deep sea miner, The Metals Company, going public in a $2.9bn SPAC deal announced in March. The company is focused on polymetallic nodules rich in nickel, copper and cobalt. In April Lithium miners Orocobre and Galaxy Resources merged to create the world's fifth-largest global lithium chemicals company. The companies said the merger consolidates the group's position in Argentina. The deal was valued at A$4 billion.

The Bacanora deal returned focus to the battery materials space after last week's big precious metal M&A: Fortuna Silver Mines and Roxgold combining in a $884 million deal.

The panelists also discussed record high copper prices, the dismal jobs report and Pandora Jewellery dropping mined diamonds.