Douglas, Isle of Man / Kabanga, Tanzania — August 2026
Lifezone Metals has removed the last obstacle standing between it and full control of one of the world’s most valuable undeveloped nickel deposits. In a deal completed in July 2025, the NYSE-listed company bought out BHP’s remaining 17% stake in Kabanga Nickel Limited, consolidating 100% ownership of a project that Lifezone’s own feasibility study values at $1.58 billion after tax — against a $942 million capital bill still standing between the company and first production.
The Deal Nobody Had to Pay Cash For
What makes the BHP transaction notable isn’t the price — it’s the structure. Lifezone didn’t write a check. The consideration is entirely deferred: a $10 million fixed payment triggered only after Final Investment Decision or a $250 million capital raise, plus a second, share-price-linked payment due after first commercial production, capped at $83 million in total (reduced to $75 million if a resettlement-related trigger event is independently verified). BHP walks away with no guaranteed cash today and a payout tied entirely to Lifezone actually delivering the mine.
For a company still years from generating meaningful revenue — Lifezone reported roughly $1 million in trailing twelve-month revenue as of December 2025 — a zero-cash-outlay buyout is about as clean an ownership consolidation as a junior developer can hope for. BHP had previously committed up to $100 million to the project before its exit, making its departure less a vote of no confidence than a portfolio decision by a company an order of magnitude larger than Kabanga’s ambitions require.
Why One Owner Beats Two
Kabanga’s underlying economics haven’t changed because of this deal — the deposit is still the same 52.2 million tonnes at 1.98% nickel, 0.27% copper and 0.15% cobalt it was before. What’s changed is who has to agree to move forward.
Multi-shareholder mining joint ventures are notorious for slowing exactly the decisions that matter most at the FID stage — capital structure, offtake terms, construction sequencing. With BHP gone, Lifezone now negotiates its Societe Generale-led project financing process, and any DFC or JOGMEC participation, as a single counterparty rather than a joint one.
Due diligence teams at development finance institutions consistently flag governance complexity as a drag on approval timelines; a consolidated cap table removes one variable from that equation entirely.
Tanzania’s own position is arguably strengthened too. Under the country’s 2017 mining laws, the government holds a non-dilutable 16% free-carried interest in Tembo Nickel Corporation Limited, the project’s Tanzanian operating entity. That stake now sits opposite one international shareholder instead of two — simpler alignment on everything from local procurement commitments to future equity discussions.
The Money Still Needed
Ownership consolidation solves a governance problem, not a financing one. Kabanga still needs the bulk of its $942 million pre-production capital requirement before construction can begin in earnest. Lifezone has kept the project moving through a $60 million senior secured bridge loan from Taurus Mining Finance, drawn in tranches since September 2025 at 9.25% annual interest, plus a $75 million capital raise completed in the second half of 2025.
Neither figure comes close to closing the gap. The real financing event — the one that will determine whether Kabanga reaches construction on the mid-to-late 2026 timeline management has guided to — is the Societe Generale-led process assembling a full project-finance package, expected to blend roughly 60% debt and 40% equity. The US Development Finance Corporation completed its due diligence on the project in the first quarter of 2026, and Japan’s JOGMEC has separately expressed financing interest — both signals that Western and allied development finance sees Kabanga as a genuine alternative to Indonesian, China-linked nickel supply, but neither yet a committed check.
What This Means for Tanzania
Kabanga is shaping up to be a test case for whether East Africa can attract the kind of multilateral, DFI-backed financing that’s increasingly flowing into DRC copper and Guinea iron ore. A clean ownership structure removes one excuse for delay. What happens next — whether Societe Generale actually closes the debt package, whether DFC commits, whether FID lands on schedule — will say more about the state of Western critical-minerals financing appetite in Africa than about Kabanga’s geology, which was never really in question.
Reporting drawn from Lifezone Metals investor disclosures, company feasibility study results (July 2025), and financial reporting on the BHP transaction, Taurus Mining Finance facility, and DFC/JOGMEC engagement. Compiled by The Project Herald.
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