Altona Rare Earths (ANR ) is to acquire an initial 51% interest in the Chambe Rare Earths Project in Malawi, through a joint venture agreement with Akatswiri Mineral Resources, a tenement which covers an area of 128 km2 in the Mulanje region of Southern Malawi.
The Aquis-listed rare earths mining company explained that the Chambe project is a large, weathered ionic adsorption clay-hosted (“Ionic Clay”) Rare Earth Elements (“REE”) project which contains kaolinitic soils which could lend itself to carrying bulk REE deposits.
The Chambe project is held under exploration licence EPL 0594/20 which was granted on 9 September 2021 and valid until 6 September 2024, with an option to renew, Altona noted.
Exploration work undertaken between 2009 and 2014 confirmed the presence of mineralised Rare Earth Oxide clays, similar to many of the larger, high-value Heavy REE mines in China.
Meanwhile, analysis of samples from Chambe in 2010 showed the soils to contain from 475 to 739 ppm total REE, including the key Neodymium and Praseodymium (NdPr) metals.
Altona explained to investors that the benefits of extracting REE from shallower ionic clay deposits include lower operating and capital costs, as well as shorter times for development.
The project will be run through Akatswiri Rare Earths Ltd (“ARE”), into which the exploration licence is in the process of being transferred. The acquisition is subject to government regulatory approval as is standard when transferring the ownership of a licence, it noted.
Under the terms of the agreement with Akatswiri Mineral Resources, an initial payment of 1 million Altona shares will be made immediately and will be held in escrow by the Company’s Malawian lawyer, until such time as the licence is transferred from AMR to ARE. Simultaneously, Altona will immediately receive 51% of the issued share capital of ARE.
The total cash expenditure for the purchase of Chambe is expected to be around £200,000.Altona will have the option to increase its interest in ARE to 70%, subject to the fulfillment of work, expenditures commitments, and payments over the course of the project. In addition, the Company will bear 100% of the project costs up to completion of Phase 3.
Altona said the rapid expansion of new energy sectors has driven its decision to make a second acquisition. It said the rising, global demand for EVs and wind powered electricity is driving demand for neodymium, praseodymium and other REE “technology” metals.
CEO of Altona, Christian Taylor-Wilkinson, commented, “By adding an Ionic-Clay rare earths project to our portfolio of assets, it delivers two probable benefits: firstly, it gives us access to REEs not typically found in carbonatite formations, as is currently being explored at our Monte Muambe project, and secondly, it enables us to realistically look at entering into production of rare earth metals in a timeframe much shorter than carbonatite REE projects afford.”
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the Company said it continues to work with the Financial Conduct Authority to complete the listing process for its proposed LSE Standard application.
It explained that the Chambe Rare Earths Project, as well as the company’s new joint venture partner, Akatswiri Mineral Resources Ltd, will now need to be included in the current Prospectus, along with a Competent Person’s Report (“CPR”) on the Chambe Project. The Company told investors that it expects the CPR to take around 6 weeks to complete.
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Earlier this month, Altona commenced exploration drilling at its Monte Muambe Project in Northwest Mozambique, in the Tete Province, to evaluate the asset’s value and potential.
The Phase 1 drilling, which entails drilling 39 holes for a total meterage of 3,000 metres, across six carefully selected rare earths targets, is being divided into two parts; a diamond drilling part focused on 4 holes and a reverse circulation drilling part focused of 35 holes.
Altona said it is undertaking the drilling programme in order to improve the understanding of the geological model through repeating selected historic RC holes in diamond drilling as well as to check the lateral extension of REE mineralisation encountered in historic RC holes.
Another objective of drilling will be to test four new targets selected by its geologist team based on available data and with a focus on areas with potential for deep weathering of carbonatites, which is known as an enrichment factor in carbonatite-hosted REE deposits.
Last month, Altona Rare Earths announced that it had raised £1.25m through a ‘significantly’ oversubscribed placing, enabling it to both accelerate and expand its activities in Africa.
Altona’s focus lies in Africa where it believes the combination of opportunity, its expertise and network provide it with “the ingredients to take full advantage of this growing, global demand.”
Overall, Altona believes that rare earths mining companies in Africa could develop and start supplying technology metals efficiently to the world’s green industries in under three years.
Altona said it believes this statistic is only likely to grow as the world moves towards being more environmentally conscious with more players starting to fulfil its “green” potential.
As a result, it believes it is now poised at the juncture of a significant opportunity within the rare earth metals sector which the group hopes to capitalise during this year and beyond.
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