• Tribeca Investment Partners invests AUD 4 million in Australia’s Cobre Limited to advance a copper project in Botswana.
• Cobre plans to use the funds to build a demonstration plant using In-Situ Copper Recovery technology at the Ngami project.
• The deal aligns Tribeca with major investors already active in Botswana’s copper belt, including BHP and MMG.

Botswana intensifies efforts to diversify its economy away from diamonds as global copper demand rises. The southern African country positions copper as a growth pillar, and its potential already attracts Chinese group MMG and Australian major BHP, which has backed Cobre Limited.

Cobre Limited said on Monday that Tribeca Investment Partners invested AUD 4 million ($2.6 million) in the company. The Australia-based asset manager strengthens its bet on Botswana’s emerging copper industry, where Cobre aims to develop a new mine.

The company said the investment will partly finance a demonstration plant for copper and silver production at Cobre’s Ngami project. Cobre plans to use In-Situ Copper Recovery, a process that extracts copper directly from the ore body without open-pit or underground mining. The technology promises lower environmental impact and potentially faster development timelines.

Cobre seeks to fund the project through a mix of revenue from future copper and silver sales and debt financing. Tribeca also signed an agreement to advise the company, although neither side disclosed the specific terms of the advisory arrangement.

Ben Cleary, Portfolio Manager of Tribeca’s Global Natural Resource Fund, said the firm welcomed its strategic investment in Cobre, emphasizing that the funding would fast-track exploration and development of the ISCR Ngami project in Botswana’s Kalahari Copper Belt and support the emergence of the country’s next copper producer.

Cobre has secured Tribeca as a new strategic investor, injecting $4m to accelerate development of the NCP ISCR.

Funds will kick-start well-field development and ramp up exploration ahead of #CBE's planned ISCR demonstration plant at NCP.

?View: https://t.co/d2Krqiri5T pic.twitter.com/MnU3L0Qknm

— COBRE LIMITED (@CobreLimited) November 16, 2025

Tribeca’s investment adds to commitments from other major mining players. BHP, the world’s largest miner by market capitalization, counts among Cobre’s early backers and agreed in March 2025 to invest up to USD 25 million in the exploration of two additional Cobre projects in Botswana. MMG invested nearly USD 2 billion in 2023 to acquire the Khoemacau copper mine in the country.

Botswana, known primarily for being Africa’s top diamond producer, also hosts significant copper reserves. Cobre has already delineated 11.5 million tonnes of mineral resources at Ngami grading 0.52% copper and 11.6 g/t silver. The company continues to expand the resource base while securing funding for the demonstration plant.

This article was initially published in French by Emiliano Tossou

Adapted in English by Ange Jason Quenum