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European Metals to power the batteries of the future

Published: 14:01 10 Dec 2015 GMT

European-Metals
Inspecting the batteries of the future

What does it stay about the state of the mining sector that after a long hiatus junior companies are once again beginning to make it onto the London markets?

Within the next month or so, Bluebird Merchant Ventures will list on the main board, raising £1.5mln in the process and presenting investors with exposure to a copper trading business in the Philippines and upside from an advanced exploration project.

Ahead of that though, European Metals (LON:EMH; ASX:EMH) has made it onto Aim  today, with first trades going through at around 11.5p.

Whether these listings are the first swallows of a new spring remains open to question.

Both are of Australian provenance, where it’s notable that because of the new weakness in the Australian dollar the domestic Australian mining industry hasn’t been suffering quite so much as industry peers in other parts of the world.

But it’s not positive sentiment in the Australian market that’s driving these new listings forward.

Rather it’s the can-do attitudes of the teams behind them.

Bluebird has in fact been financing projects for some time behind the scenes, acting in a way like a small time private equity vehicle under the guidance of its founding director Aidan Bishop.

And European Metals is backed by London-based Aussie entrepreneur and veteran of many mines and deals David Lenigas.

In this particular instance, Lenigas’s support comes through his vehicle Rare Earth Minerals (LON:REM), which owns a direct 11.87% stake.

Lenigas is a past master at making UK listings work well financially for mining companies with overseas assets.

In the case of European Metals, which is already well-established on the ASX, he’s followed a tried and tested route.

Australian-listed companies can take advantage of a fast-track route to listing on Aim, as the UK Listing Authority deems that many of its regulatory requirements will have already been met by the company’s compliance with ASX regulations.

The same option is also available to companies listed on a few other recognised exchanges around the world.

The net result is that European Metals can slip onto Aim with a minimum of fuss and fanfare, and without raising any money at this stage.

Instead, it’ll be well positioned to face London investors when the next round of funding gets underway.

The company holds the Clinovec lithium-tin project in the Czech Republic and hopes longer-term to capitalise on increased demand for lithium that will be driven by a surge in its use in batteries.

This is the same model that Lenigas is following with Rare Earth Minerals. Rare Earth holds a sizeable lithium project in Mexico and has just signed a letter of intent with Tesla for supply into the huge Gigafactory battery facility in Nevada.

The idea with Clinovec is that it will face a more European market, but we already have Tesla cars on our roads and although it’s still early days, it must only be a matter of time before battery-powered cars become the norm.

That’s where European Metals comes in, and that’s where the people who are driving it forward are gaining their traction, even in this toughest of markets.

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