Blackstone Minerals boosts exposure in key North American market with OTCQB listing
Blackstone Minerals anticipates its OTCQB listing will raise awareness of its activities at Ta Khoa where it plans to produce critical materials for the South East Asian lithium-ion battery market.
Advanced nickel explorer Blackstone Minerals’ (ASX: BSX) shares have begun trading on the US-based OTCQB market which the company expects will enhance its visibility to North American investors.
Blackstone noted it had received “significant interest” from North American investors after it published a positive scoping study on its flagship Ta Khoa nickel, copper and platinum group element project in Vietnam.
The scoping study was based on the Ban Phuc deposit which has an indicated resource of 229,000t of contained nickel and inferred resource of 50,000t of nickel.
Gross revenue of about US$3.3 billion was predicted over the project’s initial 8.5 year operation to generate 12,700t of nickel annually.
This equates to about US$179 million of annual pre-tax cash flow, with a 2.5 year payback period on the US$314 million pre-production capital costs.
The study estimated Ta Khoa had a pre-tax net present value of US$665 million and a 45% internal rate of return.
Blackstone also said North American investors had shown “significant interest” in the company’s $21 million capital raising in September.
Trading on OTCQB
The OTCQB Venture Market was establish for early stage and developing companies either in the US or internationally.
Blackstone anticipates its OTCQB listing will raise awareness of its activities at Ta Khoa where it plans to produce critical materials for the South East Asian lithium-ion battery market.
Additionally, the company said its listing on this exchange will give North American investors three key advantages including the ability to trade and settle in US dollars.
Other advantages comprise trades undertaken in the North American time zone and that an OTCQB share is the same class of ordinary share as its ASX traded stock.
“After many years of marketing in North America, we believe now is a great time to increase our exposure to one of the largest pools of capital in the world,” Blackstone managing director Scott Williamson said.
“Given the recent focus on the rise of Tesla and the electric vehicle revolution, we see North America becoming an important investor market for Blackstone’s future green nickel battery opportunities at the Ta Khoa nickel, copper, PGE project,” he added.