FILE PHOTO: A sign board is seen near the Sibanye gold mine in Westonaria, west of Johannesburg, April 6, 2016. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

Jan 24 (Reuters) – South Africa’s Sibanye Stillwater Ltd said on Monday it had terminated a $1 billion deal to buy the Santa Rita nickel mine and Serrote copper-gold mine in Brazil, following a “geotechnical event” at Santa Rita.

The precious metals miner, which had aimed to bolster its battery metals business with the deal, said the geotechnical event would have had a material and adverse impact on mining operations at Santa Rita.

“Accordingly… a wholly owned subsidiary of Sibanye Stillwater has today given notice of termination,” it said in a short statement, adding the related deal for the Serrote copper mine was conditional on the closing of the deal for Santa Rita.

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It did not elaborate on the incident at the mine.

Appian Capital Advisory, a London-based investment company which advises two affiliated private equity funds which in turn own the Brazilian mines, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Sibanye has been diversifying into metals used in electric vehicle batteries in a bid to transform itself from a gold and platinum group metals producer to a diversified miner with a “green metals” portfolio, with the Brazilian mines representing a significant step in that transition.

(Reporting by Sinchita Mitra in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Kim Coghill)

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