Hanré Rossouw
Rainmakers & Potstirrers

Hanré Rossouw

CEO: NextSource Materials

www.nextsourcematerials.com

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‘If you want to call NextSource “an Xstrata for battery metals”, yes, that is ultimately the vision’

HANRÉ Rossouw’s first task at Toronto-listed NextSource Materials is to oversee the commissioning of its Molo graphite mine in Madagascar. But the strategy is to build downstream processing capacity for anodes – which need graphite in their manufacture – and then diversify into other battery metals. NextSource’s backer is Vision Blue, an investment firm founded by Mick Davis, the former CEO of Xstrata. Davis is also chairperson of NextSource. The intention is that in becoming an integrated graphite and anode producer, NextSource will attract a premium as a Western supplier in a market dominated by China. Molo is the first step in this blueprint. 

The mine produces large- and small-flake graphite, which gives it exposure to established industrial demand (for large-flake and a means of short-term cash flow) as well as position the company to supply smaller flake to the electric vehicle battery market. The latter is expected to drive graphite demand 200% higher over the next decade. Molo is targeting 17,000 tons a year in graphite with a view to expanding to 150,000t/yr, an increase the resource can easily support, says Rossouw. 

NextSource has piloted anode production at facilities in Mauritius but for a scaled-up plant it is looking further afield in places such as Saudi Arabia, Europe, and even South Africa. Capital allocation will be key in a volatile, hard-to-read battery minerals market, says Rossouw, a former CFO and asset manager. It was while at Investec Asset Management in 2022 that Rossouw accurately called the blow-up in platinum group metal prices.

LIFE OF HANRé

Rossouw, a chemical engineer with a BCom in economics, was head of resources at Investec Asset Management in frontier and emerging markets between 2013 and 2018. He then became CFO of Royal Bafokeng Platinum before making the jump as CFO of petrochemicals group Sasol. Whilst claiming to be “quite happy there” he was headhunted by former boss Mick Davis. Rossouw was seven years at Xstrata through its glory years, working on deals, investor relations and as CFO of the group’s alloys division in South Africa.

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