31 March
2021
ALTONA RARE EARTHS PLC
(“Altona” or “the Company”)
AGREEMENT TO
ACQUIRE
NANKOMA RARE
EARTHS MINING PROJECT
Altona (AQSE: ANR.PL), has signed an Option Deed to acquire a
70% legal and beneficial interest in Leadway Group Ltd, a Ugandan
registered company, which is the owner of the Nankoma Rare Earths
Project (“Nankoma Project”), in Uganda.
The Nankoma Project is held under Exploration Licence EL00115
and covers an area of 67.5 km2 and is located approx. 50
km east of Jinja, which lies 130 km east of Kampala in Eastern
Uganda.
The Company has commenced a three-month period of legal and
financial due diligence on Leadway Group, ahead of exercising its
first Option Right, to acquire an initial 51% interest by
30 June 2021 (“First Option
Shares”). The initial period will also see the Company perform
a small-scale scout exploration programme, including core analysis
of the samples in respect of the Nankoma Project. In consideration
for the grant of the Option Rights, the Company is required to pay
a fee of £25,000 to the shareholders of Leadway Group (or its
nominee) and issue 250,000 Ordinary Shares in the Company
(“Option Fee Shares”) to the shareholders of Leadway Group
(or its nominee). The shareholders have nominated Mayflower Capital
Investments Pty Ltd. as its nominee for the fee and the Option Fee
Shares. The cost of exercising the first Option Right is £1. This
will be followed by a three-month period of technical due
diligence, where, upon successful further exploration, and the
agreement of a 12-month work programme and exploration budget for
the Nankoma Project by the Company and Leadway Group, the Company
will exercise its second Option Right to acquire an additional 20%
interest to give the Company a total 71% interest in Leadway Group
by 30 September 2021. The cost of
exercising the second Option Right will be £125,000 of Altona
ordinary shares, calculated by the 10-day average market price
ending on the date of the delivery of the Exercise Notice.
If the Company elects not to exercise the second Option Right it
has the obligation and right to re-transfer the First Option Shares
back to the Shareholders of Leadway Group to ensure the Company has
no further obligation or liability with respect to Leadway
Group.
As mentioned in the RNS of 21 September
2021, the rationale for the acquisition of the Nankoma
Project is based, at this time, on the close proximity of the
tenement to Australian Stock Exchange listed Ionic Rare Earth
Limited’s (“IonicRE” – ASX: IXR) rare earths exploration
project, which lies immediately from the north-west to the east of
the Nankoma tenement and has a similar geology and
geomorphology.
IonicRE has reported, from its Makuutu Project, an estimated
total resource of 315 million tonnes at 650 ppm Total Rare Earth
Oxide (“TREO”). Crucially, IonicRE reported high levels of Critical
Rare Earth Oxides (“CREO”), at 310 ppm, which include the elements,
Neodymium and Praseodymium, two of the rare earth elements which
Altona is focused on extracting, due to their demand in many green
and high tech industries.
Considering that IonicRE’s resource is of the ionic-clay
adsorption type deposit, the TREO and CREO figures are highly
encouraging, due to the ease of recovery and low-cost nature of
this type of deposit. This has provided to the Board of Altona with
sufficient confidence to invest in the Nankoma tenement.
-ends-
For further information, please visit www.altonaenergy.com or
contact:
Altona Rare Earths Plc
Christian Taylor-Wilkinson, Chief
Executive
+44 (0) 7795 168 157
Martin Wood, Non-Executive
Chairman
+44 (0) 7880 787
080
Alfred Henry Corporate Finance Ltd (AQSE Corporate
Adviser )
Jon Isaacs / Nick Michaels
+44 (0) 20 3772 0021
Company Information
Altona is an exploration and mining company focused on the
evaluation, development and extraction of rare earth metals in
Central and East Africa.
The Company was admitted to trading on AIM on 10 March 2005 and was subsequently admitted to
Aquis Stock Exchange on 1 February 2019. A copy of its
admission documents dated 4 March
2005 can be accessed on its website,
www.altonaenergy.com. This website is where items can be
inspected under Rule 4.14 of the AQSE Growth Market Access
Rulebook. A new Company website is currently under construction at
www.altonare.com