Chris Showalter
CEO: Lifezone Metals
‘We see a clear indication of intent to drive this globally significant project forward’
LIFEZONE Metals gets mentioned in all the right places. Its Kabanga Nickel project in Tanzania was held up as the banner venture of the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP), a coalition of 14 nations and the European Commission, and supported by the administration of former US president Joe Biden. Formed in September, the MSP is aimed at responding to China’s chokehold over the critical metals supply chain. Kabanga was also the topic of conversation when BHP, which is a $100m backer of the project, ‘parlayed’ with top government officials in South Africa last year amid speculation of a second takeover attempt of Anglo American.
On the ground, unperturbed by the battering of the nickel price, Showalter’s team have made decent progress. The Tanzanian government awarded the project a permit for a refinery in Kahama. Then, with the US International Development Finance Corporation in tow, Lifezone started to raise finance for Kabanga, enlisting Société Générale as its lead adviser and attracting the interest of luminaries such as family member Harry Lundin’s Bromma Asset Management.
Then, in October, a memorandum of understanding was signed with JOGMEC to facilitate supply of nickel from Kabanga to Japanese companies. A definitive feasibility study of Kabanga – previously scoped to produce 1.7 million tons a year of nickel before adding another 1.7Mt annually in a second phase – is due imminently. For now, though, the market needs some convincing. At the time of writing, Lifezone’s shares were under pressure as the nickel price was subdued. Clearly, the market is still absorbing a near doubling in Chinese and Indonesian metal supply from 2023.
LIFE OF CHRIS
Showalter has a BA from Ivy League institution Dartmouth College in the US’s snowy New Hampshire. But it was to banking he was called, specifically to Goldman Sachs, where he was introduced to Southern Africa. Showalter has worked at Hannam & Partners as well as Renaissance Capital, where he was co-CEO. It was while at these companies that he earned experience working in Zimbabwe, where he met Keith Liddell, the UK mining entrepreneur. Showalter became CEO of Liddell’s KellTech, a refining technology company, and it was this association that led to Kabanga Nickel and Lifezone.
