Orion Minerals sets sights on wealthy equity partners

ORION Minerals, a Northern Cape copper developer, is optimistic its most recent investor roadshow to Australia will achieve what has so far eluded it — a broad base of institutional shareholders.Shares in the company more than doubled last year, culminating in a five-year high on on February 3. The trigger to the share price improvement was an agreement with Glencore, the Swiss-headquartered miner and marketing firm. In return for buying metal from Orion’s Prieska Copper Zinc Mine (PCZM) in the Northern Cape, Glencore will pay Orion $250m, of which $40m is upfront.The capital injection will fund the shallower part of PCZM’s orebody, known as the “Uppers Project”, and a portion of its extension, the “Deeps Project”. The two projects carries a combined capital cost of just over R6bn, so Orion still has R2bn in finance to find. At full tilt, PCZM will operate at its scoped capacity of 22,000 tons of copper and 65,000t of zinc a year.Orion CEO Tony Lennox says the only institutions on the firm’s share register are its founding partners Tembo Capital, a UK business that has a 17.9% stake, and Germany’s Delphi Group (12.6%). As Orion is hoping to use equity finance for part of the balance of PCZM, the coming months will be a gauge of market sentiment.If there’s interest in copper (there will be), including in South Africa, the company will seek to raise more equity than originally planned, says Lennox. “Equity is better than debt — you don’t have to pay it back,” he says in an interview with Miningmx sister publication, the Financial Mail.Another surge in Orion’s share is possible once the transaction with Glencore is closed and project construction begins. “I think you’ll see another step-up in the price,” Lennox says. First output has been pushed out to the first quarter of next year from December 2026, partly owing to delays related to Glencore’s merger discussions with Rio Tinto.Though the JSE had been “good to Orion”, Lennox thinks the deeper pool of capital that Australia has for junior and mid-tier mining is now worth tapping. “We need to reinvigorate the story. There are a few goals scored, and a clear path to production, which I think will resonate in that market.”Orion has also been boosted by an exploration partnership with BHP, the world’s largest miner. The Australian group will invest $500,000 as part of its 2026 Xplor programme in which it partners with early-stage exploration and technology companies globally, particularly in search of critical minerals.Mining majorsOrion was selected to partner BHP as one of 11 from an application pool of more than 780. It’s also BHP’s only exploration partner in the EMEA region. “My view is that the majors have three priorities: copper, copper and copper,” says Lennox. “They have searched the world vigorously and for a host of reasons the Northern Kalahari region has been underexplored — and I know that is the internal thinking within a couple of the majors.“Clearly we are very pleased with the BHP Xplor partnership, and that is being factored into our thinking as we speak about a longer, more extensive portfolio into the future,” says Lennox.BHP’s partnership with Orion, which is planned to extend beyond the tenement boundaries of Orion’s properties, marks the company’s first major investment in South Africa in years. The fact that it’s in the Northern Cape stands for something, especially as the region is having “a moment” in terms of its prospects.In addition to BHP’s exploration plans, both Anglo American and South32 reiterated their commitment to the province by saying they were committed in the long-term to their shared manganese assets in the Samancor Joint Venture.A version of this article first appeared in the Financial Mail.The post Orion Minerals sets sights on wealthy equity partners appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com