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Robert Yildirim has a 10-year plan to grow CoreX Holding into one of the world’s top 50 mining companies, with chrome, base metals and renewable energy all earmarked for international expansion, he told Fastmarkets on Wednesday February 12. Sometimes dubbed the ‘King of Chrome’, the Turkish billionaire had always been acquisitive in metals, spending much of the past 25 years picking up chrome assets across Eurasia and expanding into molybdenum, vanadium and nickel.
As founder, chairman and chief executive officer, Yildirim set up Netherlands-based CoreX in the summer of 2024, creating immediate subsidiaries in sectors such as metals and mining, and shipping and logistics.
“I want to focus on my core business. The name ‘CoreX’ means core, multiplied by growth. It motivates me,” Yildirim said.
CoreX Metals and Mining includes a number of key assets that were previously part of Yildirim Group, the family-owned Turkish industrial conglomerate that Yildirim spent more than three decades building and running with his two brothers.
These assets include chrome producers Vargön Alloys and Albchrome, noble alloys producer Bear Metallurgical and a growing nickel portfolio.
There are significant expansions already signed and others in the pipeline, all driven by Yildirim’s drive for rapid international expansion, a divergence from his roots at the family firm.
With his exposure to Turkey now at just 15%, Yildirim is focusing on a range of deals including renewable energy in Latin America, and base metals and industrial minerals in West Africa and Central Asia.
“I had to separate to follow my dream to be a top 100 global mining company, but my ultimate goal is top 50,” he said.
“I want to be in the top five nickel players in the world, the number one chrome chemicals player in the world, and in the top 50 global mining companies in the world,” he said. “To get there, I set up new goals in January 2025. I need 5-10 years. If God gives me long life, CoreX Metals and Mining will be there.”
Alongside his expansions, Yildirim will supply his traditional stainless steel customers with key ferro-alloys.
This will include the resumption of ferro-silicon production at Vargön Alloys in Sweden next year, he said.
“I have long-standing customers and I will continue to serve them. I will give stainless steel customers ferro-chrome, ferro-silicon and ferro-nickel in Europe, and other materials in the US,” Yildirim said.
“I am going back to ferro-silicon production in Vargön Alloys – it’s going to take a year to convert the furnace to ferro-silicon,” he said.
There could be expansions in chrome too, with the possibility of US molybdenum and vanadium producer Bear Metallurgical branching out into chrome metal production, he added.
Yildirim will also be sourcing more chrome ore for Vargön – in addition to what it takes from Kazakhstan and Albania – after confirming that he will not be taking Turkish chrome ore and ferro-chrome producer Eti Krom into his CoreX business, meaning that Vargön must replace that ore feed.
In renewable energy, Yildirim has signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of El Salvador to develop 500MW of power, made up of 100MW each of geothermal and wind power, and 300MW of solar power.
Financing talks are under way with financial entities for power purchase agreements, he told Fastmarkets.
“I am growing in El Salvador in ports and energy, and maybe mining down the road,” he added.
Yildirim is also looking at Latin America and Africa for nickel, and oil and gas, as well as Kazakhstan for copper and soda ash.
“I want to grow in nickel. I bought Euro Nickel in North Macedonia, and Ferronikeli in Kosovo, and a couple of months ago I bought a nickel ore mine in the Ivory Coast. Now I am looking at nickel assets in Latin America that are in the market for sale,” he said.
“I am trying to close a deal in two months in Kazakhstan for a copper mine. Qazaq Soda, a soda ash plant under construction in Kazakhstan, will be completed in two years. That’s a $400-500 million investment in 500,000 tonnes per year of soda ash in phase one, and another 500,000 tpy later, so in total [that will be] 1 million tpy – and it’s the only Kazakh soda ash producer,” he added.
No catch up with Robert Yildirim would be complete without a glance at his other assets, which include ports, a freight forwarder and two football teams – Turkish super league side Samsunspor, and USL Dunkerque in France’s Ligue 2.
“I will probably get more football teams around the world in future,” he told Fastmarkets, “to build a multi club platform.
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