Jervois Global - Case Update

An Australian mining company has filed for insolvency protection in the US, seeking approval of a pre-packaged plan to recapitalise the company and take it private.

Jervois Global is a Melbourne-headquartered cobalt miner company listed on the ASX, Canada’s TSX-V and the US OTC market. The company’s main assets include a cobalt mine in Idaho, US, the Nico Young nickel and cobalt deposit in NSW, Australia, a production facility in Finland, and a nickel and cobalt refinery in São Paulo, Brazil.

The company has struggled over the last few years due to plummeting cobalt prices, lower than expected electric vehicle sales and competition from China’s CMOC Group, which opened a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2023 and oversaturated the market.

In 2023, Jervois idled its Idaho mine and laid off 250 workers, which the company’s CEO said would not be viable until cobalt prices essentially double.

In late January 2025, the company announced that it has entered into a funding and recapitalisation agreement with Millstreet Capital, one of its lenders, which will result in Jervois being recapitalised through a prepackaged US Chapter 11 procedure and becoming a private group. The restructuring contemplates a US$145 million equity injection and a US$125 million debt-to-equity conversion.

The company filed a prepacked Chapter 11 proceeding on 28 January and has since received approval of a debtor-in-possession facility. If the Chapter 11 plan is confirmed, Millstreet has agreed to implement the recapitalisation in Australia by funding an administration of Jervois and proposing a DOCA which reflects the terms of the Chapter 11 plan.

It is expected that the proposed recapitalisation will be completed before 30 April 2025.

Information on the Chapter 11 proceeding can be found here.