RZ Resources, already in the global spotlight as a key US critical minerals supplier, is plotting an ASX float that could be worth $1 billion.
As reported by the Australian Financial Review, the mooted float would underscore surging global demand for Australia’s critical minerals sector, turbocharged by last year’s $US8.5 billion strategic pact between the United States and Australia aimed at securing supply chains outside China.
RZ Resources – one of seven Australian developers identified by the White House as potential suppliers of critical minerals to the US – plans to use IPO proceeds to restart its mothballed processing plant at Pinkenba in Brisbane and advance its Copi mineral sands project near Mildura in Victoria’s Murray Basin.
Copi is expected to produce rutile, zircon, ilmenite and monazite, with product destined for customers in Japan and the US. Rutile is a key input for titanium, which is critical to aerospace and advanced defence manufacturing.
Crucially, the integrated project would allow RZ to mine, process and export directly to end users, bypassing China, which currently dominates global critical minerals processing.
The company rose to prominence in October after receiving a letter of interest from the US Export-Import Bank (EXIM), signalling potential financing of up to $US460 million under Washington’s push to build a strategic critical minerals stockpile known as Project Vault.
“The EXIM letter of interest raised our profile and market confidence in us,” RZ founder and executive chair David Fraser told the Australian Financial Review. “These types of announcements are telling the market that they’ve got to get into critical minerals.”
RZ has also secured strong Japanese backing, including a $15 million strategic investment from Marubeni Corporation and earlier support from JX Advanced Metals, reinforcing Copi’s geopolitical and commercial credentials.
The investment by Marubeni follows the investment made by another Japanese company, JX Advanced Metals Corporation, announced in June this year.
Marubeni is a major Japanese industrial conglomerate with extensive interests in the mining and resources sector globally.