Categories: Energy / General Market Commentary
Topics: General Energy / General Market Commentary

Battery metal deals still sparking - EY

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The battery metals sector appears to be somewhat isolated from the recent slow-down in global mining and metals transactions, advisory firm Ernst & Young (EY) said.

EY earlier reported that global merger and acquisition (M&A) transaction values in the mining and metals sector fell by 9.5% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2018, and while deal value in the first half of 2018 was up 36% year-on-year, this was largely owing to the $18-billion merger between PotashCorp and Agrium completed in the first quarter of 2018.

“While global deal volumes have declined year-on-year, the Australian market has been buoyed by the strong global appetite for strategic metals,” said EY Oceania transactions market leader Paul Murphy.

“Lithium has been a hot topic, but where it is really getting interesting is in the potential applications for energy storage and 3D printing such as cobalt, nickel, graphite and vanadium. There is a broader realization of the massive market potential which is already evident in the price performance of these commodities over the past 2 years.”

Murphy said that despite sluggish M&A activity overall, strategic metal prices and deals were accelerating.  

The value for strategic mineral assets was up 22% year-on-year in the first half of 2018, as investors increasingly looked to position in minerals critical to new technologies.

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