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Abu Dhabi’s International Resources Holding is in talks about buying an indirect stake in one of the world’s biggest tin producers.
Private equity firm Denham Capital owns 57% of Alphamin Resources Corp., which operates the Bisie tin complex in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. IRH is among the parties interested in investing in a new vehicle that Denham is considering creating to hold that stake, according to people familiar with the matter.
An IRH delegation recently visited the mining site in Congo, said the people, who asked not to named talking about a private matter. A deal isn’t imminent and there’s no guarantee the discussions will result in an investment, the people said.
Investors in the Denham vehicle would gain a portion of profits from the world’s two highest-grade tin mines. Alphamin, which has a market value of C$1.5 billion ($1 billion), paid total dividends of $115.5 million for 2022 and 2023.
IRH, a unit of International Holding Co. — a vast conglomerate controlled by United Arab Emirates’ National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan — declined to comment.
Alphamin’s tin projects are in North Kivu province, which has been wracked by conflict for three decades. That’s been a barrier to investment in the Toronto- and Johannesburg-listed company, which started production in 2019. Following an expansion, Alphamin is ramping up output to 20,000 tons a year — or around 6% to 7% of global production.
Denham, which has been Alphamin’s largest shareholder for a little over a decade, is investigating a “vehicle to continue the investment in Bisie,” said Rob Still, a partner at the firm. That’s “solicited considerable interest from a number of parties” and Denham is in discussions with them, he said.
Still declined to identify the companies. “No definitive arrangements have been made with any third party at this juncture,” he said.
Alphamin declined to comment.
Trading house Gerald Metals is the sole offtaker of Bisie’s tin concentrate via a prepayment-linked contract that runs until 2028.
Annual demand for tin is forecast to increase by more than a fifth to 450,000 tons by 2035, according to Project Blue, a Cape Town-based provider of intelligence on critical minerals. The metal, used in solder for electronics and in renewable energy technologies, has climbed 14% this year to about $29,000 a ton.
Elsewhere in eastern Congo, most tin – as well as gold, tantalum and tungsten – is extracted by hand by so-called artisanal miners.
IRH made its entry into the mining world in December, when it made the winning bid to buy Zambia’s Mopani copper complex with a commitment to invest more than $1 billion. Since then, the Emirati firm has been looking at further mining deals and partnerships around the world.
(By William Clowes, Michael J. Kavanagh and Archie Hunter)
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