Lifezone confirms advanced talks with Orion CMC on Kabanga nickel equity investment

Lifezone Metals Limited (NYSE: LZM) said on 23 October 2026 that its negotiations with Orion Critical Mineral Consortium (Orion CMC) over a "significant equity investment" in the Kabanga Nickel Project in Tanzania "are at an advanced stage", in a statement on Business Wire. The company said it was answering questions from media and investors after Oskar Lewnowski, Founder and Group Chief Executive of Orion Resource Partners, spoke about the project in a Bloomberg Television interview that day.

According to Lifezone, Orion CMC is a global investment platform that Orion Resource Partners launched in partnership with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and ADQ, Abu Dhabi's sovereign investor. Lifezone said Standard Chartered Bank has led its competitive process to secure a strategic investment in Kabanga, a process it had announced before.

In its H1 2026 interim results on 29 July 2026, Lifezone described talks on a potential strategic equity investment in Kabanga as advanced, with multiple offers received, without naming a bidder. The same release said negotiations to amend the Framework Agreement with Tanzania had moved more slowly than expected and affected the FID timeline. Lifezone said it now expected FID in Q1 2027 and that the date could be moved forward through the parties' joint efforts, "but FID could also happen later, depending on the lender's assessment of the amended Framework Agreement". The Framework Agreement was signed on 19 January 2021 by Kabanga Nickel Limited, a wholly-owned Lifezone subsidiary, and the Government of Tanzania, according to the October statement.

The July release said the Societe Generale-led process was progressing, and that the DFC had completed its due diligence for a political risk insurance workstream early in the first half of 2026. Lifezone also said it had released Kabanga contracts with an approximate value of $854m to market during H1 2026, including the EPCM, mining and bulk earthworks tenders.

Lifezone reported cash of $37.3m at 30 June 2026, up from $20.1m at 31 December 2025. Of the $41.7m it had drawn from its senior secured bridge loan facility by 30 June 2026, $21.7m came in during H1 2026. The company said the further $18.3m, available until 29 November 2026, can fund pre-FID, early-works and development spending on Kabanga and help move the project financing workstream forward. On 23 April 2026 Lifezone closed a $25m registered direct offering, issuing 5.7 million ordinary shares at $4.40 each. Its net loss attributable to shareholders was $6.9m in H1 2026.