New Century progresses New Caledonia acquisition from Vale

The company announced on ASX today that it has made “significant progress” in evaluating the technical and commercial aspects of the transaction, which would see New Century secure 95 per cent of issued shares in Vale New Caledonia (VNC), who owns and operates Goro.

Foreign reserves and resources for the Goro deposit is comprised of 193.5 million tonnes, containing 2634 thousand tonnes of nickel and 249 thousand tonnes of cobalt.

New Century has not yet finished a definitive binding agreement to acquire an interest in Goro but the parties involved have agreed to extend the exclusivity of the transaction for another 45 days.

“If the transaction proceeds, the successful acquisition of Goro would result in New Century becoming a major supplier of nickel and non-DRC sourced cobalt for the electric vehicle industry,” New Century stated in a media release.

Tesla boss Elon Musk recently announced the electronic vehicle company is searching for sustainable nickel miners for the company’s electronic vehicle battery production.

The Goro operation includes a mine, processing facility and port, located on the island of New Caledonia, a French territory which is a top nickel producing region globally.

New Century stated that historical operations at Goro have not performed to full capacity due to design flaws and operational commissioning issues.

“The due diligence process has outlined a logical and technically robust solution for Goro’s operation, which is expected to deliver improved production rates and reduced costs.”

New Century expects to make a decision on a binding offer for VNC in September.