It lasted for six days and five nights, 21 bidders made a total of 3448 bids, and nearly one million people watched... The recently watched Sichuan Snowway Mining Equity Auction finally fell on May 21, and the final transaction price exceeded 2 billion yuan. It was 597 times higher than the starting price of 3.35 million yuan, setting a rare auction record in the industry.

　　According to the Jingdong bankruptcy auction platform, the object of this auction is 54.29% of Yajiang Snowway Mining Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Snowway Mining) held by Chengdu Xingneng New Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xingneng New Materials). Equity, the transaction price of the subject matter is 2000202942 yuan, and the buyer is Tan Wei.

　　The auction was originally scheduled to start at 10:00 on May 16 and end at 10:00 on May 17 (except for delays). The starting price is about 3.35 million yuan, the deposit is about 335,000 yuan, and the single price increase is 50,000 yuan. yuan and its integer multiples, and set up a delayed bidding mechanism.

Due to the intense bidding war, the auction entered a four-day "overtime".

　　However, the final winner was not the two players who had competed for many days before, but No. 141243314 who suddenly joined the battle at 5:00 on May 21.

Prior to this, the auction bid had been below 600 million yuan for nearly three days.

In the last 3 hours before the auction ended, the price increase was increased to 50 million yuan, and the bidding price was finally driven up to 2 billion yuan.

The auction price exceeded estimates, and the total transaction cost reached 3.5 billion

　　Snowway Mining's mining rights for the Dechalongba lithium mine are valued at 1.279 billion yuan.

In August 2016, because Snowway Mining failed to pay the 1.279 billion yuan for the "increased exploration mineral species" price announced by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Land and Resources for the exploration rights of the Dechalongba lithium mine and quartzite mine, the result of the evaluation was invalid.

　　According to the civil ruling of the Intermediate People's Court of Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, with December 31, 2018 as the evaluation base date, the court entrusted an asset evaluation agency to evaluate the market value of Snowway Mining's 57.1% equity interest at 1.275 billion yuan.

According to the evaluation results, the market value of Snowway Mining's 54.29% stake at that time was about 1.2 billion yuan.

　　In February 2020, 54.29% of Snowway Mining's shares were auctioned on the Jingdong bankruptcy auction platform, and the starting price at that time was 849 million yuan.

The auction was suspended due to objections to the seizure of the subject matter by outsiders.

　　In addition, the managers of Snowway Mining have openly solicited potential investors at least 4 times.

In March this year, the fourth public announcement of intentional investor recruitment disclosed by Snowway Mining showed that the registration base price of intentional investors was 381 million yuan.

　　As of December 13, 2021, Snowway Mining has confirmed that the amount of creditor's rights is 1 billion yuan, and the amount of suspended creditor's rights is 570 million yuan.

Under the dilemma of bankruptcy, liquidation and insolvency, the auction price of Snowway Mining's shares dropped again and again.

The starting price of this auction was as low as 3.35 million yuan, but it finally reached a sky-high price of 2 billion that far exceeded market expectations, and even exceeded the previous highest evaluation price.

　　If the transaction proceeds smoothly, in addition to the transaction price of 2 billion yuan, the winning bidder will also need to settle the debt of 852 million yuan under the corresponding equity and the increased exploration price of 694 million yuan, which means that the winning bidder needs to pay for Sri Lanka in total. The lithium ore resources of Novi Mining have paid a cost of more than 3.546 billion yuan.

Lithium prices have risen nearly five times a year, and lithium ore resources have triggered multiple bidding

　　In recent years, the high prosperity of the new energy vehicle industry has greatly boosted the demand for lithium batteries, the global lithium resource supply and demand gap has continued to expand, and lithium prices have continued to rise.

According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a professional information provider for the electric vehicle industry, lithium prices have surged 490% in the past year.

In March this year, the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate in the Chinese market soared to a maximum of 500,000 yuan/ton, while the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate in early 2021 was only 60,000 yuan/ton.

　　At present, the world's major mining companies and new energy industry chain companies have accelerated the layout of upstream lithium ore resources.

This is also the main reason why Snowway Mining's equity bid is so intense.

　　According to public information, the core assets of Snowway Mining are the exploration rights of 18.53 square kilometers and the mining rights of 1.14 square kilometers in the Dechalongba Lithium Mine.

According to the appraisal report of Yunnan Luyuanheng Mining Rights Appraisal Co., Ltd., as of June 30, 2021, the appraisal value of the detailed investigation and exploration rights of the Dechalongba lithium mine and quartzite mine owned by Snowway Mining is 974 million yuan.

　　Dechalongba Lithium Mine is located in the northeast of Yajiang County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province, and belongs to the core mining area of ​​the world-class spodumene mine Mika.

In addition to lithium, the mining area is also rich in niobium, beryllium and tantalum metal reserves.

　　According to the assessment report, with June 30, 2021 as the base date, the retained lithium resource reserves of the Dechalongba Lithium Mine were 24.92 million tons, and the lithium oxide resources were 293,200 tons (about 725,100 tons of LCE). The grade is 1.18%.

The production scale of open-pit mining of this extra-large lithium mine is 1 million tons/year, and the production scale of underground mining is 720,000 tons/year.

Based on the normal production year, the annual output of lithium concentrate is 147,000 tons, and the annual output of tantalum and niobium concentrate is 66.78 tons.

　　According to the surging news reporters, because Snowway Mining's prospecting right for the Dechalongba lithium mine has expired, Snowway Mining's equity may have certain risks.

The relevant announcement of the open recruitment of prospective investors shows that currently Snowway Mining is continuing to handle the fourth reservation of exploration rights.

According to the announcement, the manager does not promise to go through the procedures for the transfer of exploration rights for prospective investors.

The identity of the mysterious buyer is a mystery, and market speculation may be related to GCL

　　At present, the Jingdong auction platform has only announced the confirmation of the auction transaction, and has not disclosed the specific information of the final buyer and other bidders, but the speculation and rumors about the auction participants in the market have intensified.

　　According to market rumors, potential companies that may participate in the auction include GCL Energy (002015), Chuanneng Power (000155), Sichuan Luqiao (600039), Rongjie (002192), Shengxin Lithium Energy (002240), Zijin Mining (002240) 601899) etc.

In addition, CATL (300750) participated in the last credit auction of Snowway Mining, so it is still possible to participate in this auction.

As of press time, none of the above listed companies have publicly responded to the rumors of participating in the auction.

　　For Tan Wei, the ultimate buyer of this auction, the market speculates that this person may be related to GCL-related companies.

The reporter learned from the data of Tianyancha that only one of the 648 bosses named "Tan Wei" belongs to the mining industry.

Dushan Wanfushan Mining Co., Ltd., which is the legal person, has a certain relationship with Leshan GCL New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of GCL Group.

However, it is currently impossible to confirm that the "Tan Wei" and the buyer "Tan Wei" are the same person.

　　On May 19, GCL Nenke, a listed company under GCL Group, has completed the acquisition of 99% of the creditor's rights and 43% of the equity of Snowway Mining, and confirmed that GCL-related companies have participated in the auction of Snowway Mining's equity. , hoping to acquire full controlling interest in the company.

　　According to Tianyancha, the largest shareholder of Snowway Mining is Xingneng New Materials, which holds 57.1% of the shares, which is the shares of this auction.

The second largest shareholder is Chengdu Chuanshang Xingneng Equity Investment Fund Center (Limited Partnership), which holds 42.85% of the shares, and this company is a subsidiary of New Hope Group, a partner of GCL Nengke.

　　In May this year, GCL Nengke publicly stated at the performance exchange meeting, "The company intends to extend to the upstream raw material lithium ore industry, and is currently planning and promoting the relevant transactions of potential investment target assets to build the world's leading mobile digital energy for the company. The strategy of technology operators is to ensure resources, and the company will disclose it in a timely manner according to the progress of the project.”

　　According to GCL Nengke's plan, the company will build an energy-replenishing network with services for more than 30,000 new energy vehicles in 2022. At the same time, it will deploy lithium mines, salt lake lithium resource development, lithium salt deep processing, and the cascade utilization of retired batteries. Upstream and downstream of the industrial chain .

　　Regarding the various rumors about participating in Snowway Mining's equity auction, GCL Nengke responded on the investor interactive platform on May 20, "Please refer to the company announcement for relevant company information."

　　At present, there is still a certain degree of uncertainty in the equity auction transaction of Snowway Mining. Before paying the full price on schedule, it cannot be ruled out that the buyer Tan Wei may regret the auction.

　　Pu Lei from Shanghai Douyoucheng Law Firm told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) that the auction confirmation letter can only indicate that the auction is currently closed at this price, the deposit has entered the account of the auction agency, and the remaining amount It needs to be settled within 7 days.

If the buyer fails to pay the full price on time, the court will be deemed to have regretted the auction and has the right to order a new auction.

In the re-auction, the original buyer shall not participate in the bidding.

　　According to Article 24 of the Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning Online Judicial Auctions by People's Courts, after the auction is concluded, the deposit paid by the buyer will not be refunded because the buyer fails to pay the price within the time limit.

In this auction, bidders need to pay a deposit of 10% of the starting price, or 335,000 yuan.

　　Guotai Junan's research report pointed out that benefiting from the explosive growth of demand for new energy vehicles and energy storage, the demand for lithium resources is expected to maintain a compound growth rate of more than 30% in the future.

In 2022, the contradiction between supply and demand in the lithium industry is still prominent, and the gap between supply and demand lies in the resource side where the expansion speed is slower. Therefore, it is expected that the lithium price will continue to run at a high level.

　　According to the prediction of Zheng Mianping, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, my country's lithium carbonate supply and demand gap will reach 150,000 tons by 2025, and the gap will further expand to 350,000 tons by 2030.

　　In the context of the continuous tight supply and demand of lithium resources, from upstream mining companies and lithium material suppliers to downstream battery manufacturers and car companies, the anxiety of the entire new energy industry chain about upstream lithium resources is difficult to ease in the short term. The battle for mines will continue to be staged around the world.

　　It is worth noting that Australian lithium ore supplier Pilbara will hold its second lithium concentrate auction of the year on May 24.

The mining company has received investment from industry leaders such as Ganfeng Lithium and CATL, and its downstream cooperative enterprises include China's Great Wall Motors and South Korea's Posco and LG.

The auction price of Pilbara lithium concentrate is known as the vane of the global lithium concentrate price trend. The auction of 5,000 tons of lithium concentrate is bound to cause competition among all parties.

(Reporter Qin Yixiao)