Greetings Contrarian,

This is The Next Big Rush, your daily drop of mining/energy investing news. Where we come together and win together.

Here are the highlights:

💵 Fortuna Buys Chesser

😎 The Race To Recycle Starts

🐘 A Lithium Mammoth Is Born

💵 Fortuna Buys Chesser

Fortuna Silver Mines, a precious metals producer based in Vancouver, just announced that they're expanding their operations in West Africa with the acquisition of Australian gold junior, Chesser Resources.

The deal is worth over $60 million and will help Fortuna increase its presence in West Africa, where it already has mining projects in Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire.

The acquisition will give Fortuna access to Chesser's Diamba Sud gold project in Senegal, which is one of the newest gold discoveries in the area. Chesser also has tenements close to gold mines owned by big players like Barrick Gold and B2Gold in Mali.

The deal means that Fortuna will purchase all of Chesser's fully paid ordinary shares for a whopping 95% premium to Chesser's stock close on May 8.

😎 The Race To Recycle Starts

Glencore, whom we can’t stop talking about, has teamed up with Canada's Li-Cycle Holdings to build Europe's largest battery recycling plant in Italy.

Glencore, which has a 10% stake in Li-Cycle, wants to convert an old lead refinery in Sardinia into a plant that can recycle raw materials like cobalt, lithium, and nickel.

The new facility is expected to be up and running by late 2026 or early 2027, and will be able to process between 50,000 and 70,000 tonnes a year of pre-treated scrap product, known as black mass.

This move will allow Glencore to better control the supply of materials that are essential for automakers. The company's global head of recycling said that this recycling hub will allow them to "close the loop" for their customers across all aspects of the supply chain.

🐘 A Lithium Mammoth Is Born

Allkem and Livent, two global lithium chemicals companies, have announced that they are combining to create a leading global lithium chemicals producer valued at $10.6 billion.

The combined company will have a pro-forma CY'22 revenue of around $1.9 billion and will be vertically integrated, allowing for greater flexibility and value capture across the value chain.

The merger is expected to close by the end of 2023 and will result in Allkem shareholders owning around 56% and Livent shareholders owning around 44% of the new company.

The merger will immediately enhance the company's business-critical scale and global capabilities, strengthen its supply chain, and create opportunities to accelerate and de-risk the development of growth projects.

😺 Meme of The Day

Happy Speculating!

The Editor

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.