TECHMET is pursuing up to $200m in fresh capital to advance its portfolio of projects, said Reuters citing the critical minerals firm’s CEO Brian Menell on Monday.
The privately held group, valued above $1bn, secured $300m last year, including $180m from the Qatar Investment Authority. However, strong investor demand prompted management to reopen the fundraising round.
“We decided to keep it open in order to seek another one or 200 million, which we’re busy concluding now,” Menell said at the Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town. “There has been a lot of additional appetite for further investment beyond the target that we originally set ourselves.”
TechMet holds stakes in 10 companies spanning the critical minerals supply chain, including Brazilian Nickel and South Africa’s Rainbow Rare Earths. The US government’s International Development Finance Corp ranks among its largest backers, alongside Mercuria, S2G Investments and Lansdowne Partners.
Whilst open to new opportunities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia – key battlegrounds in Washington’s competition with China for African resources – TechMet is concentrating on existing assets.
“We’re certainly open to the DRC. It’s a very important country,” Menell said, noting the nation controls over 70% of global cobalt supplies and ranks as the world’s second-largest copper producer.
Zambia also presents attractive prospects, particularly for copper deposits.
