Cadence Minerals (KDNC ) has reported that initial sampling work in Brazil for its Azteca plant offtake financing has confirmed iron grades in line with expectations, allowing the funding process with its offtake partner to continue on track. The company is now progressing the associated commercial documentation.
As part of the offtaker’s commercial due diligence, a limited number of non-systematic grab samples were taken from accessible areas of the existing tailings for indicative laboratory analysis. These samples returned composite grades of 54% and 56.7% iron, with a median grade across all samples of 55% iron.
The results were consistent with the operational and commercial assumptions used in negotiations and the agreed heads of terms. The offtaker has confirmed that the findings met its due-diligence expectations and has not requested any further sampling at this stage.
This technical progress follows Cadence’s recent equity raisings to fund its share of the Azteca plant restart at the Amapa iron ore project in Brazil. In late September 2025 the company secured share subscriptions of £2.16 million, alongside a director subscription, taking the total to £2.34 million. A retail offer was launched in parallel.
In early October 2025 Cadence reported the result of that retail offer, which generated significantly higher demand than expected. The company increased the size of the offer to accommodate part of this demand, ultimately raising £300,000. In total, Cadence has now raised about £2.64 million to support the Azteca restart.
Under the agreed structure, Cadence will contribute around 10–15% of the US$4.6 million prepay linked to the Azteca plant, and about 11% of the overall capital expenditure. The balance is to be funded by the offtake partner. The Azteca plant is expected to produce about 380,000 tonnes per year of 65% iron concentrate, forecast to deliver roughly US$32 million in free cashflow over three years, with operations projected to be cashflow positive from the first shipment. Free cashflow from Azteca will fund working capital, operations, the definitive feasibility study and early works for the full 5.5 million tonnes per year project.
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The combination of oversubscribed equity funding and positive due-diligence sampling suggests that both capital markets and Cadence’s offtake partner are aligned behind the Azteca restart. The confirmation of tailings grades in line with assumptions removes one potential technical hurdle and keeps the offtake financing process moving towards final documentation.