By Alistair MacDonald
One of mining's heavyweights is betting on batteries to power
his comeback.
Mick Davis, a key figure in the megamergers of BHP Ltd. and
Billiton as well as Glencore and Xstrata, is raising money to
invest in companies that mine the metals required to store
power.
His wager: Efforts to move to low-carbon energy will require
more batteries and provide a permanent shift in metals demand.
Once the preserve of consumer products, batteries are disrupting
the automotive and energy industries by enabling electric vehicles
and making it possible to store wind and solar power. Those trends
have pushed many miners to expand into the metals used to make
batteries, such as lithium, cobalt, graphite and nickel.
The last big secular change Mr. Davis said he bet on was China
in 2002, when he became chief executive of Xstrata. Driven by a
belief that resources like coal, copper and zinc would be in demand
as China developed, he helped transform the small Switzerland-based
miner via a string of deals into a more than $50 billion giant.
However, bankers say Mr. Davis will have to raise a considerable
amount more than his current commitments to make a meaningful
impact in battery metals. The market values of listed producers are
already high and rising, while investing in explorers is a
long-term bet, they say.
The 63-year-old is looking to bounce back after a recent
venture, the mining fund X2 Resources, failed to make any
investments despite raising $5.6 billion. Since then, the man
nicknamed "Mick the Miner" has focused more on his involvement in
Britain's governing Conservative Party than mining.
Mr. Davis said he realized the strength of the move toward
greener fuels several years ago as global leaders criticized the
Trump administration's environmental policies, including
withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.
"Donald Trump shone a light that there is a global consensus,
that this was an inevitable direction of travel, and I wanted to be
into it," he said.
Mr. Davis's new fund Vision Blue Resources Ltd. has so far
raised $60 million and plans to amass a war chest of several
hundred million. In its first deal, the fund recently invested
$29.5 million in NextSource Materials, which is developing a
graphite mine in Madagascar.
"There is a secular change in demand, not driven by GDP growth
but by a consensus in government," he said.
Mr. Davis said he wants to invest in projects that he could help
to bring to fruition, scale up quickly and that don't require big
investments in infrastructure, such as roads and train tracks.
He expects demand for battery metals to be driven by electric
vehicles and the need to store energy from renewable sources, whose
output can be volatile.
Analysts are positive about demand for battery metals. The
average amount of metal in an electric-vehicle battery today is 50
kilograms to 200 kilograms, which at current costs is $500 to
$2,000 per vehicle, according to Bernstein Research.
"Multiply that by one billion electric vehicles, and you can see
the potential for tremendous demand," Bernstein said in a recent
report. Car makers say that within the next five years electric
vehicles will cost the same amount to build as their gas-powered
counterparts, propelling further demand.
Born and raised in South Africa, Mr. Davis first came to
prominence as the finance chief of miner Billiton, which he helped
list on the London Stock Exchange and later merge with BHP to
create what is now the world's largest miner by market
capitalization.
Mr. Davis then became CEO of Xstrata, which he rapidly grew.
When the company combined with Glencore in 2013, it was Glencore's
CEO, Ivan Glasenberg, who ultimately got the top job.
Since then, Mr. Davis has yet to replicate his early success. He
set up X2 Resources in 2013 to buy mining assets but ended up
returning the billions it raised to shareholders after failing to
invest their cash.
Mr. Davis blamed X2's structure, which gave investors a veto on
investments. "I made a fundamental mistake in the governance
structure, which inhibited my ability to complete" deals, he
said.
In 2018, Mr. Davis joined Niron Metals to invest in industrial
metals such as iron ore, nickel and manganese. Along with the
government of Guinea, the company is developing an iron ore deposit
that was owned by Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz.
A Swiss court in January sentenced Mr. Steinmetz to five years
in jail for corruption related to a separate Guinea mining
investment. The association with Mr. Steinmetz brought Mr. Davis
negative headlines at a time when he was the CEO of the
Conservative Party.
Through a spokesman, Mr. Davis declined to comment on Mr.
Steinmetz. A lawyer for Mr. Steinmetz said he is appealing the
conviction.
Mr. Davis, who has been knighted for his charity work for
Britain's Jewish community, stepped down from his roles in the
Conservative Party in 2019.
Mr. Davis said mining has changed since he was in charge at
Xstrata. Pressure from investors means that miners are more focused
on returning cash than investing in new projects, he said.
"One thing that has also changed is companies that own assets
that have large carbon footprints are going to struggle to gain
shareholders," he said, adding that investing in battery metals is
a way to capture demand for commodities.
Write to Alistair MacDonald at alistair.macdonald@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 21, 2021 08:06 ET (13:06 GMT)
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