Just saw this too. Here’s the article text:+++ASX-listed battery...

Just saw this too. Here’s the article text:

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ASX-listed battery minerals play Jervois Mining is seeking to land an ambitious one-two knockout punch via an acquisition and associated capital raising to help fund it.

It is understood AustalianSuper-backed Jervois Mining has its eyes on a new refinery which it reckons would charge up its plans to hit commercial production at its Idaho Cobalt Operations in the United States.

Fresh off a $US100 million bond deal, Jervois Mining has turned its attention to equity. Sources said Jervois mining’s negotiations to nab the refinery were well advanced, however the company would need to find about $300 million in capital to turn its M&A plans and wider cobalt dreams into reality.

Jervois Mining, flanked by adviser and broker Canaccord Genuity, is understood to have kicked off talks with potential financiers, working them through the refinery acquisition and its funding options.

The deal structures include a big equity raising. Given the size, and the fact Jervois Mining has a $460 million market capitalisation, it would likely need a few big Australian or offshore backers to help Canaccord underwrite the deal.

Luckily for Jervois Mining, it counts AustralianSuper as its biggest shareholder with 108.5 million shares or a 13.5 per cent stake as at December 31, according to its most recent annual report.

AustralianSuper has a handful of similar stakes, keen to count ASX-listed companies it thinks can win from the looming energy transition and batteries in particular. It remains to be seen whether Jervois Mining, which is listed and registered in Australia but developing the Idaho Cobalt Operations in the United States, can pull the deal together. Sources said it was a big ask, given the magnitude of funds it was seeking to raise relative to its market capitalisation. However, Jervois Mining has showed in the not too distant past it can lure a big backer; it secured a US$100 million senior secured bond raising earlier this month and had previously been in talks with a bunch of US government departments, as Street Talk revealed in April.

The refinery and raising plans come as Jervois Mining has approved full construction at its 100 per cent owned Idaho Cobalt project. Its plans, as disclosed to shareholders on July 6, were to send ore from its Idaho mine to the Sao Miguel Paulista cobalt-nickel refinery in Brazil. Those plans were contingent on Jervois Mining completing its refinery acquisition - and then restarting the refinery in stages in 2022 and 2023. It was seeking to have the refinery deal closed by the end of December.