Mining investor TechMet forms US subsidiary to attract more capital

Aug 10 (Reuters) - Mining investor TechMet said on Monday it would form a U.S. subsidiary as part of a push to attract more capital from public and private partners for critical minerals projects. 

Dublin-based TechMet, which counts the U.S. government as a major shareholder, said the new subsidiary is part of its plans to boost the nation's mining industry, which President Donald Trump said last week was a priority for his administration.

"This is an acceleration of TechMet's commitment to build out our U.S. domestic critical minerals production processing platform," said Brian Menell, the company's CEO. 

Menell will become chairman of the U.S.-focused subsidiary, which will control TechMet's holdings in lithium startup EnergySource Minerals, U.S. Vanadium, battery recycling company Momentum Technologies and Xerion Advanced Battery. 

TechMet has invested more than $400 million into the four firms and is the largest shareholder in all of them. 

The U.S. subsidiary will be based in Washington, D.C., and will have an initial goal of getting those four companies to commercial production before it considers other investments, Menell said.

"There's no question of spinning it off or distributing it or realizing value from it," he said. "We see billions of dollars of value and relevance that we need to make happen in the U.S. and want to be part of in the long term."    

Privately-held TechMet also stakes in mining companies outside the U.S., including Brazilian Nickel and South Africa's Rainbow Rare Earths.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; editing by David Gaffen)