Nigel Robinson
INTERIM EXECUTIVE CHAIR: Giyani Metals
‘What is going on at Giyani Metals that it can’t keep a CEO for longer than a year?’
JUST what is going on at Giyani Metals that it can’t keep a CEO for longer than a year? That’s the track-record: four different bosses since 2022. The last incumbent, Charles FitzRoy, quit in September to “pursue other opportunities”. In stepped chair Nigel Robinson, who will run Giyani on an interim basis. Trouble is, he was only appointed to Giyani’s board in June. Somewhat surprisingly, he is promising to “streamline” the company when what it most needs is stability.
As we said in our 2025 edition, Giyani is an interesting prospect on paper. It hopes to develop the K.(Kgwakgwe) Hill project in southern Botswana, an 80,000-tons-a-year manganese prospect from which Giyani hopes to process specialist battery-mineral high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate (HPMSM).
Good work seems to be going on among the firm’s chemical engineers, who have completed first-phase cell testing with a potential US customer, with further phases focusing on HPMSM stability to come. Engineers have also developed an oxide product, diversification that has important option value for Giyani given the fast pace at which battery science moves. A definitive feasibility study for K. Hill is due in the first quarter. If completed, along with a successful year to 14 months of additional HPMSM testwork, Giyani can look to who might finance the project, costed at $281m in 2022.
Absent further slippages in schedule, first production would be in 2028 or 2029. The US seems an obvious port of call given 90% of globally supplied batter-grade manganese is controlled by China. In June, Giyani received a letter of intent for $225m in finance from the Export-Import Bank of the US.
LIFE OF NIGEL
Robinson's spent 18 years at Central Asia Metals, a UK-listed copper, zinc and lead production and exploration firm operating in Kazakhstan and North Macedonia, and where he’s still non-executive director. Based on the execution success of Central Asia Metals alone, he is excellently credentialled for making profit and paying dividends. Exactly what Giyani needs. He graduated with a degree in engineering from Lancaster University and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
