May 19, 2020
Australian Mines sells seven years of Sconi mine production to SK Innovation
2 min
Australian Mines has entered an agreement with South Korean energy and telecommunications giant SK Innovation to sell nickel, cobalt and scandium produced at Queensland’s Sconi mine.
SK, which turns over $122bn overall and $35bn in the field of battery manufacturing, will buy all 12,000 tonnes per annum of nickel and cobalt and 60,000 tonnes per annum of nickel sulphate over the next seven years. The agreement also permits an extension of six years should the two parties wish to do so.
At the same time, SK will purchase up to 19.9% of Australian Mines’ shares – around 669mn at a cost of $0.12 each, totalling roughly $80mn.
See also:
- Glencore sells NSW coal mine to GFG Alliance
- Optimism up 55% in Australian mining industry
- Read the latest edition of ANZ’s Business Chief magazine
The deal is subject to regulatory and shareholder approval, which also includes SK’s own validation of using Sconi-produced cobalt and nickel.
If the agreement is approved, SK will also help Australian Mines in its bankable feasibility study of the Sconi site. This study is looking at the possibility of trebling annual production volumes, and is due for completion in April.
The money raised from the share sale will be used to fund the development of the mine, specifically its initial construction phase.
Sconi is located around 250km west of Townsville, and is well-situated in terms of logistics links and labour.
Jun 8, 2021
Timeline: India takes unicorn leap with six in five days
2 min
We chart an historic week in India’s startup tech industry, where from April 5-9 the country achieved six unicorns
We chart an historic week in India’s tech industry, where in just five days, between 5-9 April 2021, the country achieved six new unicorns, bringing India’s total to 10 in 2021 to date, an immense unicorn leap from just seven in 2020 and six in 2019.
April 5: Meesho
India’s first social commerce unicorn, Meesho raised US$300m from SoftBank, Facebook and Shunwei Capital, giving the Bangalore-based startup a US$2.1bn valuation, a threefold jump from its previous funding round in 2019. Founded in 2015 by two IIT-Delhi graduates, Meesho connects producers and resellers, helping small businesses sell through social media. It has 45m customers and has enabled 13m entrepreneurs to start their online businesses with no investment.
April 6: CRED
Founded just over two years ago, Bangalore-based credit card repayment app CRED raised US$215m from Falcon Edge Capital and Coatue, nearly trebling its valuation to US$2.2bn from its January US$80m round. Allowing customers to pay off their credit card debt while earning CRED coins which they cash in for rewards, CRED has grown rapidly during COVID-19, doubling its customer base to nearly 6 million in a year.
April 7: API Holdings / Groww
The first epharmacy startup to gain unicorn status, PharmEasy (API Holdings), which has digitised 60,000 brick and mortar pharmacies and 400 doctors across India, raised US$350m in a round led by Prosus Ventures. Founded by four former Flipkart employees as a way of making investing simple, investment platform Groww became India’s second-youngest fintech unicorn, raising US$83m in Series D funding led by Tiger Global, quadrupling its previous round in September.
April 8: ShareChat
New Delhi-grown social media startup ShareChat, founded in 2016 by Mohalla Tech raised US$502m from Lightspeed Ventures, Tiger Global, Twitter and Snap taking its raised total over six rounds to US$766m and pushing its valuation to US$2.1bn. The funding will be used to grow its user base and short video platform Moj, which launched in 2020 following TikTok’s ban in India. The regional language startup claims 280m users.
April 9: Gupshup
AI-led conversational message startup joined the unicorn club after raising US$100m from Tiger Global giving it a ten-fold valuation of US$1.4bn. The smart messaging platform, which has seen accelerated growth during the pandemic, was founded in Bangalore in 2005 by serial entrepreneur Beerud Sheth, whose online freelancing platform Elance is now listed. Gupshup’s API enables 100,000+ businesses to build messaging and conversation experiences across 30+ communication channels.
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