Oaktree-Backed Cyanide Maker Expands Into US Battery Industry
Czech chemicals company Draslovka AS is expanding into the growing US battery industry to mitigate risks from trade tensions and volatile prices for energy and materials.
The world’s top maker of solid sodium cyanide, used in gold mining, sees strong demand for sodium-ion batteries because they can be produced with Western-made compounds. That reduces reliance on complex supply chains and critical minerals from higher-risk countries, according to the Prague-based holding funded by Oaktree Capital Management LP.
Draslovka recently agreed to supply a key chemical to sodium-ion battery manufacturer Natron Energy Inc. and expects the partnership to boost its production both in Europe and the US, Chief Executive Officer Pavel Bruzek said in an interview.
The company plans to invest an initial $40 million to $60 million in a Czech facility that will produce Prussian blue for Natron’s planned $1.4 billion battery-cell gigafactory in North Carolina. It’s also looking for the site of a much larger US plant that could start making the same compound, a non-toxic derivative of its staple sodium cyanide product, around 2028.
While bulkier and less suitable for electric cars than the lithium-ion batteries, the sodium equivalents can discharge faster, have longer lifespans and provide an alternative for grid stabilizers, large-scale energy storage or backup sources in data centers and other facilities.
“Even more importantly, their production is scalable,” the CEO said at his office in Prague. “Most of the infrastructure needed for this technology to take hold is already there.”
Founded in 1906 in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the company is now jointly owned by four Czech families, including Bruzek’s, with Oaktree holding priority shares equivalent to a roughly 10% stake. After Oaktree’s entry in 2022, Draslovka foresaw an initial public offering later this decade, but that plan is now on the back burner because of stock-market volatility.
