9 April
2024
ALTONA RARE EARTHS
PLC
("Altona"
or "the Company")
BOTSWANA COPPER LICENSE
ACQUISITION
Altona (LSE: REE), a resource
exploration and development company focused on critical raw
materials in Africa, is pleased to announce
that it has entered into a binding option agreement (the
"Agreement") with Ignate African Mining P/L, with respect to
exploration for copper and silver on Prospecting Licence
PL2329/2023 (the "Tenement"), located in the Northwest District of
Botswana, known as the Sesana project (the
"Project").
Highlights
·
The Project is located in the heart of the highly
prospective Kalahari Copper Belt ("KCB"), close to major
copper-silver discoveries.
·
The Project is located 25 km from the producing
Khoemacau underground copper-silver mine and situated in an active
exploration area of the KCB (Khoemacau, Galileo Resources, ARC
Minerals).
·
Recent airborne geophysical data interpretation
shows prospective geological structures for copper-silver
mineralisation passing through the Tenement.
·
Botswana considered one of the most attractive
mining investment jurisdictions in Africa, and indeed, in the
world.
The
Tenement
The Tenement has a surface area of
about 274 km2 and is valid until 31 March 2026, after
which it can be renewed twice for periods of up to 2 years each. It
is valid for copper, cobalt, gold, silver, lead, zinc, aluminium,
chromium, iron, titanium and platinum group metals.
Figure 1 - Location of the KCB
(light blue), main Cu deposits, and Altona's Sesana Cu-Ag
Project
The
Kalahari Copper Belt
The Project is located along the
eastern margin of the KCB, a continental-scale geological feature
stretching in a Southwest-Northeast direction across Namibia and
Botswana hosting sedimentary copper-silver deposits. Copper-silver
mineralisation typically occurs along the contact between the D'Kar
Formation, which is mostly made up of reduced siltstones, and the
Ngwako Pan Formation, which consists mainly of oxidised sandstones.
The contact is repeated across strike at the favour of isoclinal
folds. The position of copper-silver mineralisation is controlled
by the lithology and oxidation state contrast along the contact, as
well as the presence of folds and associated structures.
The KCB is home to the low-cost
Khoemacau copper-silver mine which started production in June 2021.
The mine has a full rate production rate of ca. 60ktpa Cu and ca.
1.6Mozpa Ag, extracted from ore from the Zone 5 underground mining
operation, which is located about 25 km from the
Tenement.
The Tenement is located next to
Galileo Resources licence PL039/2018 and near ARC Minerals licence
PL135/2017 (Virgo Copper-Silver Project), where a 3km long soil
anomaly associated to the D'Kar / Ngwako Pan formations contact has
been recently identified.
Recent interpretation of regional
airborne magnetic data shows that a ca. 10km long stretch of the
contact between the D'Kar and Ngwako Pan formations contact is
passing through the northern part of the Tenement, along the
eastern margin of a fold structure, which makes it a perfect
setting for copper-silver mineralisation.
Figure 2 - Sesana Cu-Ag Project map
- Red outline: PL2329/2023 outline; blue outline: D'Kar / Ngwako
Pan formations contact; black line: fold axis. Green dots: Cu-Ag
deposits.
Botswana
Botswana is a safe and mature mining
jurisdiction with a supportive regulatory framework. The 2022
Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Company ranked Botswana as
best in Africa in terms of investment attractiveness and placed
this country in the top 10 world's mining jurisdictions alongside
North American and Australian jurisdictions. The country has one of
the lowest corruption perception index in Africa.
Mining is a significant contributor
to the country's GDP and its main source of foreign currency
income.
While Botswana has been producing
copper since the early middle-ages and on an industrial scale since
the 1960s, recent discoveries in the KCB have triggered a marked
increase in interest for this emerging world-class copper province.
While impressive copper deposits such as Zone 5 have already been
put in production, exploration in the KCB is still in its infancy
and more major discoveries can be expected.
Consideration
The Agreement gives Altona an
exclusive option to acquire an up to 85% interest in the Tenement
in consideration for payments in three tranches spread over a
period of four years totalling USD 110,000 in cash and USD 250,000
in Altona shares, with phased exploration technical and expenditure
commitments.
These payments will be broken down
as follows:
·
USD 10,000 in cash and USD 50,000 in Altona new
ordinary shares ("Shares") upon satisfaction of the final
agreement's conditions precedent. The Shares will be issued at the
VWAP for the 10 days before the signature of the final
agreement,
·
USD 50,000 in cash and USD 100,000 in Shares 12
months later, upon start of phase 2. The Shares for this phase will
be issued at the VWAP for the 10 days before the start of phase
2.
·
USD 50,000 in cash and USD 100,000 in Shares 18
months later upon start of phase 3. The Shares for this phase will
be issued at the VWAP for the 10 days before the start of phase
3.
In addition, Altona has paid an
exclusivity fee of USD 10,000 upon signing of the option
agreement.
Should a resource of over 20 million
tonnes at over 1% Cu equivalent be defined, the original Tenement
owner will also be entitled to a one-off payment of USD 250,000 in
cash and USD 250,000 in Shares. These Shares will be issued at the
VWAP for the 10 days before the announcement of the corresponding
resource statement.
Post this period, non-funding
parties will be diluted according to a standard straight line
dilution formula and, if their interest falls below 10%, it will be
replaced by a 1% Net Smelter Royalty.
Next steps
Initial exploration work will
include a combination of geochemical and geophysical exploration
methods which will be deployed during the course of 2024. Soil
sampling associated to ionic leach assays is particularly suitable
for the KCB context, in which the substratum is blanketed by a sand
cover of varying thickness. Detailed magnetometer survey will allow
a detailed mapping of lithology and structures while induced
polarization will allow the direct localisation of disseminated
sulphides to allow accurate reconnaissance drilling
planning.
Cedric Simonet, CEO of Altona, commented:
"We are
delighted with the option agreement for the Sesana copper and
silver Project, located in the heart of an emerging copper province
where world-class discoveries have already been proven through mine
development. Furthermore, Botswana is considered as one of the best
mining destinations in the world and much remains to be
discovered.
"Past exploration along the KCB has focused on the
along-strike extensions of initial discoveries, ignoring some of
the numerous parallel folds that recurrently bring the D'Kar /
Ngwako Pan formations contact near the surface. Recent
interpretation of regional airborne geophysics data clearly shows
this contact passing through the Sesana Project area, giving us a
high level of confidence in its potential.
"The acquisition of the Sesana Project is in line with the
implementation of Altona's portfolio diversification strategy.
This, and the recently acquired Kabompo South critical raw
materials project in Zambia, is expected to generate news flow at a
relatively low cost and will complement our flagship Monte Muambe
rare earths project in Mozambique."
This announcement contains
information which, prior to its disclosure, was inside information
as stipulated under Regulation 11 of the Market Abuse (Amendment)
(EU Exit) Regulations 2019/310 (as amended).
To subscribe for RNS alerts, please
visit: https://www.altonare.com/investors/regulatory-news-alerts/
-ends-
Altona Rare Earths Plc
Cedric Simonet,
CEO
+44 (0) 7778 866 108
Louise Adrian,
CFO
+44 (0) 7721 492 922
Christian Taylor Wilkinson, Business
Development
+44 (0) 7795 168 157
Novum Securities Ltd (Corporate
Finance)
+44 (0) 20 7399 9400
David
Coffman
Daniel Harris
Allenby Capital Ltd (Joint Broker)
+44 (0)20 3328 5656
Kelly Gardiner / Guy McDougall
(Sales)
Nick Athanas (Corporate
Finance)
Optiva Securities (Joint
Broker)
+44 (0) 20 3411 1882
Daniel
Ingram
About Altona Rare Earths Plc
Altona is a
resource exploration and development company focused on Critical
Raw Materials in Africa. The Company is listed on
the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange with the ticker
"REE".
Rare Earths are a group of 17
chemical elements, many of which are critical to the
World's ongoing transition from
carbon-based to renewable energies, and to the defence and
communication sectors.
The Company is currently developing
Monte Muambe, its flagship Magnet Rare Earths Project, located in
Northwest Mozambique. The Project was acquired in June 2021, and
the Company has so far drilled over 7,800m, and
defined a maiden JORC Mineral Resource Estimate of 13.6 million
tons at 2.42% TREO. A Competent Person Report including the
Scoping Study for Monte Muambe was published on 18 October 2023.
The Project is now at Prefeasibility Study stage, with a focus on
metallurgical testing and process.
Altona is presently diversifying its
portfolio by acquiring a limited number of critical raw material
projects to complement Monte Muambe. The acquisition of the Kabompo
South copper project in Zambia and of the Sesana copper-silver
project in Botswana represents the first steps towards the
implementation of this expanded strategy.