Ring of Fire Metals, Mincor to fly under Wyloo banner

Ring of Fire Metals, Wyloo Metals, and Mincor Resources (ASX: MCR) are unifying under the brand name “Wyloo” as the company becomes the largest pure-play nickel producer outside of Russia.

Wyloo’s Canadian subsidiary, formerly Ring of Fire Metals, owns the high-grade Eagle’s Nest project, expected to be North America’s only chromite producer and located about 500 km northeast of Thunder Bay in the remote Ring of Fire region. Wyloo rebranded as Ring of Fire Metals one year ago after it acquired Noront Resources in April 2022.  

Wyloo completed its acquisition of Mincor last month. With the newly acquired Cassini and Northern operations in Kambalda, Western Australia, Wyloo becomes a major producer of nickel from sulphide ores.

Now is the right time to bring all its assets together under the Wyloo name, said CEO Luca Giacovazzi.

“We are now producing around 15,000 tonnes of nickel from our mines in Western Australia which, together with our Eagle’s Nest project in Ontario, will ensure we remain a significant nickel producer for at least 20 years,” he said.

“Our project with IGO to build Australia’s first integrated battery materials facility in Kwinana will also see us expand downstream to produce precursor cathode active material (PCAM) via a low-cost and low-carbon process for the electric vehicle battery industry. We plan to do the same in Ontario, supported by long-life production from Eagle’s Nest.”

Giacovazzi continued: “We’ve also assembled an exciting exploration portfolio with dominant land positions in three of the most prolific nickel belts in the world: Kambalda; Ring of Fire; and Cape Smith, and we like the potential we see in reopening some of the mines currently in care and maintenance in Widgiemooltha.”

The use of a single name coincides with new leadership appointments.

Sylvain Goyette has joined Wyloo as vice-president of projects in Canada; he was formerly with Glencore (LSE: GLEN) in New Caledonia. Steve Price has joined the company, becoming asset president for Kambalda, and bringing nearly 40  years of experience most recently as general manager of underground operations at the Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia. Joel Turco has been promoted to chief development officer at Wyloo.

Wyloo launched its bid to acquire Mincor in March, and in April it said it offered A$1.40 ($1.20) per share of Mincor, a 35% premium on the closing price previous to the offer. The deal valued the company at A$760 million ($652 million) on a fully diluted basis.

Before the takeover bid, Wyloo owned a nearly 20% stake in Mincor, increasing to 61.64% ownership stake in May.