28 April
2022
ALTONA RARE EARTHS
PLC
(“Altona” or “the Company”)
INTENTION TO LIST
ON THE LSE
STANDARD SEGMENT
OF THE OFFICIAL LIST
PROPOSED EQUITY
RAISE
Altona (AQSE: ANR.PL), a mining exploration company focused on
the evaluation, acquisition and development of Rare Earth Elements
(“REE”) mining projects in Africa,
is pleased to confirm its intention to apply for admission of its
ordinary shares (the "Ordinary Shares") to the Standard Segment of
the Official List and to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s
(“LSE”) Main Market for listed securities ("Admission"). Admission
to trading of the Company's Ordinary Shares on the AQSE Growth
Market will be cancelled simultaneously with Admission. It is also
proposed that on Admission, the Company will change its TIDM to
REE.
Concurrently with Admission the Company is seeking to raise
funds to satisfy its working capital requirement for a period of 12
months from Admission, by way of a placing of new Ordinary Shares
(the “Fundraising”). Altona’s will use the Fundraising
proceeds to finance its current and future rare earths mining
projects in Southern and Eastern
Africa.
The Directors believe that an LSE listing will provide access to
the future capital it will need to develop its asset portfolio and
be of benefit when negotiating acquisitions in Africa. It will also increase liquidity in the
Company’s shares. The Directors currently anticipate that Admission
will become effective during May
2022.
For more information on Altona and its current mining projects
please visit: www.altonaRE.com
RARE EARTHS SECTOR HIGHLIGHTS
- “NdPr” are the critical rare earth metals needed to propel the
green revolution
- Rare Earths market size approx. USD13.2 billiion in 2019 and set to rise
USD19.8 billion by 2026*
- Record rare earths commodity prices recorded in Q1 2022
- Permanent magnet demand driven by increase in Electric Vehicles
and Wind Turbines
- Permanent magnet production doubled to 125,000 tonnes between
2006 – 2021
- Projected to reach 315,000 tonnes by 2030
- Demand for rare earths outstripping production by 3,000 tonnes
per year and rising
COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS
- Altona acquired its first rare earths project in July 2021 – Monte Muambe in Mozambique
- Phase 1 exploration drilling proghramme completed in
November 2021
- Assay results show multiple intercepts over 2.5% TREO with the
highest recorded at 7.24% TREO
- REE carbonatite projects considered viable for BFS over 1%
TREO
- Monte Muambe a potentially significant light rare earths
asset
2022 HIGHLIGHTS
- Commenced Phase 2 exploration – Resource Drilling – in
April 2022
- Negotiating two new acquisitions expected to complete in
H1
- Investigating multiple opportunities in various African
countries – Angola, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi
- Cash raised at listing will fully fund Altona’s current
exploration activity and acquisition strategy for 12 months
(* Global Market Insights)
Christian Taylor-Wilkinson,
Chief Executive of Altona, commented, “Our move to the LSE Main
Market signals the greater maturity of the Altona business and the
increasing opportunity within the sector. It supports our strategy
to develop the significant rare earth asset at Monte Muambe, where
we have seen exploration success, while pursuing other rare earth
exploration and acquisition opportunities.
“Our goal is to fill a significant gap in the market as global
demand for NdPr and the other critical metals continues to rise.
Altona has spent the last two years building its African
infrastructure, including local partners, highly experienced
directors and resource ministry relations.
“The growth of this rare earth asset platform, means now we can
both be nimble and responsive to opportunities, as well as able to
implement long-term development plans across different countries
within Africa.”
Rare Earth Critical Metals
The Rare Earths mining sector is one of the most in demand and
fastest growing industries in the world, yet it is also one of the
least known about.
This classification of metals, which lies at the bottom of the
Periodic Table and categorised as ‘Rare Earths’, is made up of 17
elements and are used in a vast array of industries, manufacturing
processes and technologies - becoming “everyday” end-product items.
However, it is a sub-set of these elements, those known as the
“critical metals” - those used in the production of permanent
magnets - which are most in demand. These metals represent only 20%
of the total rare earths consumed but 80% of the value. They are
vital to many high technology applications, especially in renewable
energy.
The individual prices of these metals varies widely. Those used
in glass polishing and ceramics, for example, cost only dollars per
kilo, whereas the critical metals – Neodymium (Nd), Praseodymium
(Pr), Dysprosium (Dy) and Terbium (Tb) now have prices ranging from
hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollars per kilo.
These prices have significantly risen over the last decade and
are set to increase further as demand, coupled with supply chain
issues, increases.
The wider market context helps us understand these extraordinary
prices. The growth of electric vehicles (“EV”) and the global
roadmap for replacing traditional energy sources with sustainable
renewable energy (in the form of wind turbines) are driving demand.
At last November’s COP-26 Summit,
world leaders set out a timeframe to remove internal combustion
engines from car production lines – some countries, including the
UK, elected as short a timeframe as 2030.
At the heart of all EVs are two key components, the battery and
the electric motor drivetrain – it is in the drivetrain where you
will find rare earths. Each EV requires kilos of rare earths to
make a magnet powerful enough to power the drivetrain which propels
a vehicle. Similarly with wind turbines, an 80-metre turbine
requires hundreds of kilos of critical metals to produce the
permanent-magnet synchronous generators. There is an additional
benefit from using rare earths in wind turbines; the power units
they create require very little maintenance which is ideal for
offshore wind farms, where regular access is nigh on impossible and
costs are high.
EV sales boomed in 2021, despite the pandemic, with almost 2
million new cars registered around the world, taking the total to
over 10 million vehicles. Almost 20% of new UK sales so far in 2022
are EVs or hybrids. By 2050 the number of EVs on the road is
expected to be over 700 million vehicles, accounting for over 60%
of all cars, globally. For the foreseeable future, there is no
alternative to rare earths.
China is the current dominant
player in the rare earths market. Due to a number of favouring
factors in the late 90s, China was
able to establish itself quickly as the leading producer and price
other major country producers out of the market. The rise of
China’s middle-classes between 2000s - 2010s, with their demand for
consumer goods and new housing forced the Chinese government to
retain many metals for their own consumption. This, combined with
an abundance of high-grade, heavy rare earths mines, allowed
China to become the producer of
over 80% of the world’s supply. More importantly, as China crucially still remains the only major
processor of rare earths, it has effective control over
approximately 95% of the world’s supply.
These statistics have become a cause for concern for the other
major economic powers around the world. Not only could China disrupt the much-desired phasing-out of
combustion engines over the next 20 years, but crucially, they have
it in their power to squeeze supply to those industries, including
the military and defence sectors, thereby denying the US and
Europe their independent ability
to build fighter jets, nuclear submarines, lasers and missile
systems.
At a time of heightened global sensitivities due to the current
war in Ukraine, these matters are
weighing heavily on the governments of the world, leading the US to
begin stockpiling rare earths. This has led to the current record
prices we are seeing across the board.
Strategy
Altona has a simple and clear strategy; to acquire controlling
interests in multiple, over-looked or forgotten about mining
tenements which have reported the presence of rare earth metals at
some point over the past 30 years, but which have not been
extracted. The reason there are many of these overlooked rare
earths assets in Africa is because
until only 10-15 years ago there wasn’t the global demand that
there is today. Many mining companies, while looking for other
minerals, discovered the presence of rare earths in the course of
drilling. While data was published, these metals remain in the
ground, as there was not at the time viable demand for them to
justify extraction. The current increase in global demand for rare
earths has now supported Altona’s strategy to acquire these
overlooked rare earths projects, across different African
jurisdictions, and take them into production.
Africa is the perfect ground
for discovering these critical elements; the geological formations
caused by the shift in tectonic plates along the 4,000 mile long
East Rift Valley, which runs down the eastern side of Africa, have caused outcroppings of
carbonatites on a vast scale. Many of these have experienced heavy
weathering over the millennia, producing highly concentrated areas
of rare earths that can be mined in economically viable amounts.
Africa also contains
ionic-adsorption clay deposits, which are typically smaller
formations but easier to recover and process.
Altona is looking to build its portfolio around a blend of these
two geological formations, providing the Company with large,
long-term but high-value assets and smaller, quick to market
but equally valuable ionic-clay assets. Altona’s board believes
this strategy makes the Company stand-out from its peer group.
For more information on Altona and its current mining projects
please visit: www.altonaRE.com
-ends-
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
Optiva Securities (Broker)
Daniel
Ingram
+44 (0) 20 3411 1882
Yellow Jersey PR
Tom Randell/ Annabelle
Wills
+44 (0) 20 3004 9512
About Altona Rare Earths Plc
Altona is a mining exploration company focused on the
evaluation, development and extraction of Rare Earth Element (REE)
metals in Africa. It owns a REE mining project in
Mozambique; the Monte Muambe
Project, a significant Light REE mining project in the southwest of
the country, where exploration work commenced on 1 October 2021. Positive assay results from the
initial drilling programme has led the Company to progress with
Resource Drilling in April 2022. The
Company is in the process of investigating other REE opportunities
in Africa.
.