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CSE-listed Madison Metals is betting on a sustained increase in uranium demand and accompanying price increases in years to come as the global demand for clean energy brings nuclear energy into ever sharper focus.

If Madison CEO Duane Parnham is right, then the company’s investment in developing two significant Rössing-type uranium prospects in Namibia and Canada – the world’s second- and third-largest uranium producing countries, respectively – should yield significant returns.

Uranium is an unusual commodity to analyse because it is mainly bought under long-term contracts by those utilities who operate nuclear power plants. Owing to this, the demand that sets the price is not simply the volume that is consumed in a given year.

Rather, it is the volume that utilities put under contract during the year and the supply available to fulfil those contracts in future years.

Owing to this, there has been a somewhat depressed demand environment when demand is defined as contracted volume as opposed to consumption.

US-based investment asset manager Azarias Capital Management said in a January report that the past several years of minimal uranium contracting had left nuclear power utilities around the world with significant uncovered fuel requirements from 2023 onwards.

Azarias said it expected utilities to spend this year aggressively seeking to secure their uncovered fuel requirements for next year and beyond. However, the question remains whether producers will be able to deliver on those fuel requirements.

“We believe strongly they will not . . . unless incentivised with much higher prices,” the asset manager stated.

According to the World Nuclear Association, total uranium supply dwindled by more than 10 000 t between 2012 and 2021, with global triuranium octoxide (U3O8) supply having decreased from 68 974 t to 56 961 t in the same period.

However, the uranium price last year reached its highest levels since 2014. Throughout the year, the uranium spot price rose from about $30/lb to $42.05/lb, an increase just shy of 40%.

This year, the price has risen further to as much as $63.60/lb in April, although it has since dipped to below $50/lb once again.

With prices hovering around the $50/lb mark, Parnham says that he believes a new uranium mine right now would struggle to break even. However, with prices expected to rise significantly in the next few years, and new production capacity sure to become sorely needed, well-developed and de-risked uranium assets would become increasingly lucrative.

“It’s a little bit of a risk for entrepreneurs like us, but when you assess the overall uranium market and the overall energy market, it’s clear that the price of uranium has to increase,” he tells Mining Weekly.

So far, things seem to be going Madison’s way, with investment institution Bank of America saying in April that it had raised its uranium price estimates for 2022 through to 2027 by 20% on average.

Moreover, in November last year, US President Joe Biden’s administration passed an Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that saw the country’s nuclear energy sector being allocated $25-billion, with $3.2-billion of that sum to be invested up to 2027 on an advanced reactor demonstration programme and $6-billion to be poured into a civil nuclear credit programme to preserve the country’s existing nuclear fleet and prevent premature shutdowns of nuclear power plants.

At the same time last year, reports emerged that China was planning to build 150 new reactors at a cost of about $440-billion – which is more reactors than the rest of the world has built over the past 35 years combined.

Additionally, newswire Reuters in January reported that the European Union (EU) had drawn up plans to label nuclear energy projects as green investments if the projects have a plan, funds and a site to safely dispose of radioactive waste. To be deemed a green investment by the EU, new nuclear plants must receive construction permits before 2045.

Parnham said t...

Gold mining company Gold Fields on Monday announced that it would be enhancing its dividends and applying to list on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) in response to the shareholders of Yamana Gold Inc, which it is taking steps to acquire.

The transaction, for which October is a targeted conclusion month, will require the approval of at least two-thirds of the votes cast by Yamana Gold shareholders voting in person or represented by proxy at a special meeting of Yamana shareholders called for that purpose.

The issuance of Gold Fields’ shares under the Transaction is also subject to the approval of at least 75% of the voting rights exercised on such resolution by Gold Fields’ shareholders at a special meeting of Gold Fields’ shareholders called to approve the Transaction.

Ontario Superior Court of Justice approval is among the approvals to which the transaction is subject.

Gold Fields has proposed acquisition of all the outstanding common shares of TSX-listed Yamana, including additional information on the quality and investment case of the combined company.

Gold Fields believes that enhancing dividends and listing on the TSX will improve the value of the transaction to shareholders.

Gold Fields stated that, given its strong conviction on cash flows, it would revise its dividend policy to enable it to declare an interim and final dividend in respect of each financial year, based on 30% to 45% of the normalised earnings attributable to owners of the parent.

Furthermore, and subject to attaining the relevant normalised earnings and the applicable legal and board approvals required to declare a dividend, Gold Fields would target paying a dividend at the top end of the revised dividend policy, which is 45% of normalised earnings, for the 2023 dividend cycles – being the 2023 interim and final dividends – following implementation of the proposed acquisition.

In addition, Gold Fields would apply to have its securities listed on the TSX, subject to the completion of the transaction, to provide shareholders additional flexibility at limited incremental cost.

The TSX listing would be in addition to Gold Fields’ existing primary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and secondary listing of American depositary shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

Gold Fields CEO Chris Griffith expressed the belief that the Yamana acquisition would deliver on our strategy to grow the value and quality of the company’s portfolio, by creating a winning combination of excellent assets with complementary operational strengths and proactively addressing industry wide production and reserve replacement challenges.

“Gold Fields has proven capacity to unlock the full potential of Yamana’s world class assets which will give us a stronger capital markets profile and enable us to generate superior shareholder returns.

“The board and management team remain steadfast in their belief in the long-term benefits that this deal will bring to both sets of shareholders.

“Having explored both organic growth and bolt-on acquisitions, moving now to complete this transaction is the best opportunity for both speed of delivery and value to accelerate the next phase of the company’s growth,” said Griffith.

Yamana is seen as providing a strategic fit to Gold Fields’ new Salares Norte mine, which is due to come on stream in the Atacama region of northern Chile early next year. Among the assets Yamana will bring to Gold Fields are the El Peñón underground gold-silver mine, also in Chile’s Atacama. (Also see attached graphic). In addition are the Tarkwa-like Jacobina gold mine in Brazil, Mara in Argentina, which a feasibility study is dye by year-end, ad the Canadian Malartic in in Canada.

Griffith expressed confidence that now is the time to invest in the right asset pipeline given the global scarcity of quality assets that are long-life, low cost, and located in appealing jurisdictions.

He expressed the conviction in a media briefing covered by Mining Weekly that the propose...

Bushveld Minerals CEO Fortune Mojapelo on Friday described the London Aim-listed company that he leads as heading into a future that will be requiring a lot more vanadium for steel and energy.

To meet emerging demand, Bushveld has positioned itself for broad-based involvement.

“You will struggle to find a company that's as positioned as Bushveld is across the entire value chain,” Mojapelo told Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

“As a business, we’re in a good place for the opportunities that are looking at us going forward,” Mojapelo added.

Mining Weekly readers will recall that Bushveld started on its journey to being a vanadium producer when it acquired Vametco between 2017 and 2018.

This was quite transformational in overnight taking Bushveld from being an exploration company with a tiny $20-million market capitalisation to being a producer and followed that up in 2019 with the acquisition of Vanchem.

With those two assets, it now owns two out of only four operational primary vanadium processing plants in the world.

These two plants last year produced 3 500 t, which is just over 3% of the global market and anticipates a run rate of over 5 000 t a year in the not too distant future.

These increases are largely on the back of the refurbishment work that has been done at Vanchem, where a much bigger kiln, similar in size to Vametco’s kiln, allows Vanchem to operate it a similar scale, which is important from a unit cost perspective.

“With all of this work done, we are in a really good position going forward to be generating decent cash flows on the back of improved unit cost performance. We hope that vanadium prices, that have seen significant improvements as well, will hold up going forward. We think there's good reason for prices to hold up.

Downstream business is built across three main activities, which are:

construction of an electrolyte manufacturing plant, which is under way in partnership with Industrial Development Corporation;

development of a hybrid minigrid at Vametco, which will initially supply about 10% of power requirements, utilising solar and vanadium flow batteries; and

investment into a vanadium redox flow battery manufacturing.

These are some of the questions Mining Weekly put to Mojapelo:

Environmental social governance (ESG) has become quite topical for miners, how has Bushveld prepared itself to comply with this, especially given the huge contribution of the mining sector to South Africa’s economy?

Our overall philosophy is one of beyond compliance. You've got to believe fundamentally in those values around those three elements. In terms of environment, being a responsible steward of the environment, and contributing positively. In terms of your social stakeholders, meaningful partnerships with your stakeholders across the board, which represent shared value in a true sense of the word, and then adhering to the highest standards of governance. We just recently completed a fairly detailed ESG strategy for our group underpinned by that philosophy of wanting to go beyond compliance. One of the things that we will also be doing is putting ourselves through an independent verification process to ensure that we can develop an independently verified ESG scorecard that allows people who look at us as a company to know what our performance looks like. Another point I want to mention is from a sustainability point of view, especially when you're thinking about the environment, it's not just about how we mine and how we process. Yes, we want to mine as responsibly as possible. We want to ensure that in our processing operations, we reduce our carbon footprint, we manage our emissions and putting in place the minigrid certainly also improves our carbon footprint significantly.

But beyond that, it's also about making sure that the way our products are utilised, also itself drives decarbonisation. By that I mean that when vanadium is used in steelmaking, it promotes stren...

Having completed a new long-term plan and mine redesign study, JSE- and TSX-listed midtier platinum group metals (PGMs) miner Eastplats envisages restarting mining operations at its flagship PGMs and chrome operations, Crocodile River Mine (CRM), in South Africa’s North West province in the third or fourth quarter of this year.

Restarting underground mining at CRM is dependent on whether Eastplats can secure sufficient funding, as well as the obligatory board approval, with the miner currently conducting its CRM restart business execution plan and raising the required capital.

“To start up the underground, we need $25-million [R380-million] that will largely comprise of initial mining capital [to] re-equip the stopes and winches, refurbish the lamp room, and get equipment on site,” says Eastplats South African operations GM Hannelie Hanson.

Of the total, $5.5-million (R85-million) is needed to recommission the plant, including the crusher, the comminution circuit [and] silos; while $1.4-million (R21-million) is needed to commission items such as pumps and pipes and employing labour.

Also included in the upfront capital costs is contingency capital of $6-million (R93-million).

In 2021, Eastplats issued rights, raising C$11.8-million, which it intends to use on capital projects and working capital.

LEGACY

The CRM was placed on care and maintenance in August 2013 owing to economics and problems with the mining method. “The first fault of the mine [was the] mechanised mining and board and pillar on top levels; that is problematic with [CRM’s] orebody and structures,” Hanson says.

With a market capitalisation of C$30.3-million, a share price of C$0.22 apiece and total (measured and indicated) CRM resource of 8.49-million ounces, says Hanson “. . . we are today, very close to actually having our first blast and starting production from underground.”

The CRM has a net present value of $188-million ($202-million including the tailings storage facility) and an internal rate of return of 118%; while, inclusive of tailings remining, operating costs are $1 350/oz.

All-inclusive sustaining costs (AISC), including tailings remining are $1 502/oz.

However, Hanson says the AISC could be lowered through better management of dilution and grades mined, as well as costs.

Eastplats’ strategy to restart mining CRM is to use a hybrid mining method, employing 1 400 personnel and steadily ramping up underground production over three years, to a peak production rate of about 1.02-million tonnes a year.

The CRM has reserves of 1.7-million ounces, with a proven grade of 4.75 g/t and probable grades of 3.48 g/t.

Once underground mining is approved by the board, mining of the Zandfontein resource – which is where historical mining took place – will start at a rate of 40 000 t a month run-of-mine for two years, after which it will be doubled, with an overall mine life of 22 years.

Including the potential to move new mining development into the CRM’s Crocette and Kareespruit sections – which have indicated resources of 840 000 oz and 3.25-million ounces, respectively – could extend mine life to about 50 years, she says.

Crocette has a measured resource of 430 000 oz, with established mining layouts to 9 Level that can be used, should Eastplats decide to mine the area.

“The preference [whether to mine Crocette or not] would depend on [the minerals] basket, and how much [could be obtained]. The current thinking [which needs to be] ratified by the new board, is that, as we go deeper [into Zandfontein], we develop [Crocette, alongside the development of Zandfontein].

“We have been looking at [alternative] studies for Crocette to possibly go from an opencast, and then establish an underground adit from [that point forward], which is more cost-effective than trying to sink another shaft or do another decline from start,” says Hanson.

NEW METHOD

Underground mining at CRM will be undertaken using a hybrid method, which was suggested by mining advisory firm Ukwazi...

In the year of the Queen of England’s platinum jubilee, the coins to be used in the Wimbledon ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles finals coin toss this weekend will be made of platinum for the first time in the championships’ history.

As Mining Weekly reported earlier this year, the coins are being presented to the championships by the World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC), the members of which are South Africa's Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum, Northam Platinum, Royal Bafokeng Platinum, Sedibelo Platinum and Tharisa.

Made of 70 g pure platinum, each coin gram represents a year of royal service by the queen.

The obverse, ‘heads’, side of each coin carries the platinum jubilee emblem and has been inspired by the themes of service, endurance and strength. The design incorporates a quotation from the queen's famous speech made on her 21st birthday on 21 April 1947, ‘My whole life whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service’, as well as an oak leaf motif inspired by the Royal Badge of the House of Windsor.

The reverse, ‘tails’, side of each coin is inscribed with the Wimbledon Roundel, as well as its centenary mark, specially designed for use in centre court’s centenary year.

The centre court allusion continues with the use of the inspirational Rudyard Kipling quote, "If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same"; words that are inscribed above the players’ entrance to centre court.

All England Club chairperson Ian Hewitt highlighted the symbolic gesture as adding a special element to proceedings at this year’s double celebration and WPIC CEO Paul Wilson expressed delight at the global market authority on platinum investment being given an opportunity to showcase platinum.

Wilson noted platinum’s service to the planet by improving air quality and paving the way for hydrogen, “particularly green hydrogen, the next generation, zero-emissions fuel – and its associated uses”.

The coins were designed by bespoke jeweller Heirloom London in collaboration with the All England Club, and produced using a combination of modern technology and traditional hand-engraving techniques.

Platinum, found overwhelmingly in South Africa, is the metal that is unlocking the global hydrogen economy, with hydrogen poised to become a mainstream, sustainable fuel which will play a central role in decarbonisation; over 30 countries already have road maps or strategy documents setting out their intentions in this regard.

Due to its catalytic properties, platinum is fundamental to the technology that enables the hydrogen economy; it is used in the production of green hydrogen from wind or solar power and in fuel cells for zero-emission fuel cell electric vehicles, or FCEVs.

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses the reverse listing of Big Tree Copper into SHiP Copper Company on the AltX of the JSE in October; whether an energy emergency should be declared in South Africa; and the big new industrial pillar available for the taking.

London-listed Pensana has signed a letter of intent with Yorkshire Energy Park (Yep) which ensures access to between 4 MW and 10 MW of low-carbon electricity.

Pensana will use the low-cost and resilient supply of low-carbon electricity to power the Saltend rare earth separation facility and then later to power the conversion of neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) oxide into magnet metal, making it the first in the world to use offshore wind to produce ultra-low carbon magnet metal.

Yep, which is located adjacent to Pensana’s site within the Saltend Chemicals Park, in the Hambur Free Port, will include up to 200 MW of battery storage in the deal.

Yep plans on connecting 7 GW of offshore wind to industrial consumers through large-scale batteries. The £200-million energy facility will take shape in stages over the next decade.

This while Pensana’s $195-million Saltend facility is being designed to produce 12 500 t/y of rare earth oxides, of which 4 500 to 5 000 t will be NdPr.

“Through the private wire connection to Yorkshire Energy Park, our aim is to become the world’s lowest carbon magnet metal producer, with Pensana becoming the first company globally to use offshore wind to produce ultra-low carbon magnet metal,” says Pensana chairperson Paul Atherley.

The deal bodes well with Pensana’s potential offtake partners in the automotive sector, who are placing increasing importance on the security of supply and low-embedded carbon in the supply chain.

Yep chairperson Chris Turner says Pensana’s rare earth processing hub will be the first globally to be powered by offshore wind and Yep stands ready to drive a zero-carbon energy future in the Humber estuary.

Superior sun, prime wind and land, favourable storage potential, know-how and metals put this country in pole position for green electricity and green mobility.

If one looks at the energy storage options available today, one must be excited about green hydrogen, which South Africa has the potential to have in abundance.

The storage options are batteries, hydrogen, and pumped water storage. As pumping and storing water is as green as it gets, the contest turns to hydrogen versus batteries.

For this contest to be done fairly, it must take mineral intensity, carbon footprint and recycling into account, which results in hydrogen, which can make use of existing infrastructure, emerging as the clear winner, an Anglo American Platinum media conference covered by Mining Weekly heard recently.

Not all hydrogen generation is done with the help of platinum group metals (PGMs). Hydrogen generation through alkaline electrolysers does not require PGMs, and nor does hydrogen from ammonia and direct combustion.

Hydrogen is only green when renewables apply and renewables are inconsistent, which means storage is essential, and energy is very storable as hydrogen.

What’s more, if proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers and PEM fuel cells win out – which they should on efficiency grounds – it will be a colossal bonus for South Africa because these require the PGMs that Southern Africa hosts in such abundance. In fact, a green hydrogen energy transition can be the just energy transition that South Africa simply must have, Anglo American Platinum CEO Natascha Viljoen remarked.

On local green electron (renewables) and green molecule (green hydrogen) development, Exxaro/Cennergi MD energy Roland Tatnall remarked to Mining Weekly: “We really think that this whole green electrons, green molecule revolution could catalyse a significant directional change in South African industry, and be the just transition to enable South Africans to have a new industrial pillar.”

Abandoned mines could become water batteries in addition to those already built by Eskom.

South Africa moves strongly towards sun, wind and water energy with the comfort that many other countries are doing the same,

Technology is being advanced continually and competitive arrangements are rising in price to the point where doing the right thing from a climate change perspective also has an ever-strengthening business case.

In addition, green molecule infrastructure, which has been lagging, is slowly catching up, along with the streamlined transport of green hydrogen in liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) form.

In Germany, for instance, Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies, which is associated with the Anglo American group through venture capital company AP Ventures, this week supplied its product to a hydrogen refuelling station in Erlangen with guests to the station being transported in PGM-catalysed fuel cell buses and the role of LOHC in supporting decarbonisation of mobility and industry being explained to diplomats of more than a hundred countries.

A new joint venture announced last week between Air Liquide and Siemens Energy has been highlighted as a prime example of how collaboration among industry partners is spurring greater creativity to drive the sustainable technologies that are helping to mitigate against climate change.

“At Air Liquide, we know that hydrogen has an important role in advancing the energy transition. We also know that the technologies to deploy renewable hydrogen - like electrolysis - are here today. We know this because we have proven the viability of at-scale production of renewable hydrogen with the largest PEM electrolyser currently in operation in the world,” American Air Liquide CEO Mike Graff said on LinkedIn.

This facility, in Becancour, Quebec, features a 20 MW PEM electrolyser and produces over 8 t a day renewable hydrogen for the mobility and industrial markets in the northeast of United States and Canada. With the new joint venture, the companies ...

If Pan African Resources is able to work with all stakeholders to get the long-life, high-margin, safe and sustainable R2.5-billion Mogale Gold surface tailings project going, it will be to the benefit of its business, local communities and the entire Mogale area.

“It’s the sort of project that's good to do. It's a win-win for everybody,” Pan African Resources CEO Cobus Loots told Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Fast payback, low costs, big production uplift, long life, high ungeared return and a lot more is contained in the convincing definitive feasibility study (DFS) on the Mogale Gold project, which would build on Pan African’s record of bringing surface re-mining operations into production while also ensuring that environmental rehabilitation and socioeconomic initiatives for local economic development run concurrently with job creation and skills development in host communities.

The project area, near Krugersdorp, west of the Golden City of Johannesburg, is currently characterised by limited employment, illegal mining and environmental degradation.

The DFS points to operating costs being at an incredibly low level of R78/t – and the $914/oz all-in sustaining cost would, without doubt, have investor ears pricking up, no matter where they happened to be in the world.

“We’re very excited about progressing this project further,” said Loots.

Although treating Mogale material alone would put Pan African in a position to boost its output by 25%, propel it further into midtier gold producer status, and give it an $800/oz-plus margin at the current gold price, moves are already afoot to potentially embrace the very large Soweto Cluster resource as well, which would stretch operating life by eight years beyond Mogale’s 13-year life-of-mine longevity.

“Our track record speaks for itself,” said Loots, of the London- and Johannesburg-listed company's ability to build tailings retreatment plants that pay for themselves in a blink of an eye.

Pan African’s $30-million Barberton tailings retreatment plant paid for itself in 18 months; its $20-million Evander tailings retreatment plant in three years, which was the same time it took to recover the $1.8-billion invested in the Elikhulu tailings retreatment plant of 2018.

“That track record is something that we’ll look to build on in progressing Mogale,” said Loots.

The project’s economics involve a pre-tax net present value of more than R1-billion, an ungeared internal rate of return of 20.1% at a gold price of $1 750/oz, and production within 18 months to 24 months from the start of construction.

Project funding options under consideration include offers of debt finance from financial institutions and other third-party financiers.

These are some of the questions Mining Weekly put to Loots:

The big focus is on Mogale but what is the production upside potential of Mintails SA’s Soweto Cluster?

Loots: If we can add Soweto in due course, that's going to bolster the production to quite a bit more than 50 000 oz per annum – and then also extend the project life to about 20 years, so you're going to have a low-cost, low-risk surface operation for 20 years, which we think is very attractive.

What is being indicated from the further technical work being carried out on the Soweto Cluster?

We’re doing some drilling and some studies on Soweto, and I think by the end of August we will have a very good idea of the resource we have at Soweto, and we’ll take it from there. But the base case for us is really Mogale, and if a project works using only the Mogale resource, then we think it's really robust.

What technology will Pan Africa be deploying to recover gold from this surface material?

The beauty is there's no new technology that has to be proven. It’s stock standard hydro mining that we utilise elsewhere in the group, and then a very large carbon-in-leach (CIL) processing facility. The cost per ton is incredibly low in terms of the study we worked on....

Rare earth elements (REEs) mineral exploration and development company Mkango Resources has completed a definitive feasibility study (DFS) for its Songwe Hill rare earths project, in Malawi, which estimates that the company will have to invest $277-million in the project’s development.

The TSX-V- and Aim-listed company notes that the project is among only a few advanced-stage REE projects in the world at a time when a major supply/demand gap is developing.

Further, the project is only the first portion of a larger strategy by Mkango to participate in all stages of the rare earths supply chain.

“Songwe is the cornerstone of Mkango’s Mine, Refine, Recycle strategy, underpinning development of the proposed Pulawy separation plant, in Poland, and complementing our interests in rare earth magnet recycling in the UK and Germany via HyProMag,” says Mkango CE William Dawes.

“The DFS is a major step forward for the company, uniquely positioning Mkango as a future supplier of both mined and recycled rare earths for the green transition, against a backdrop of a very strong demand and pricing outlook,” he adds.

The DFS sets out an 18-year operating life for the Songwe Hill mine, which has a proven and probable mineral reserve estimate of 18.1-million tonnes, grading 1.16% total rare earth oxides (TREO).

Mkango believes there is further potential to increase the mine life of Songwe Hill, given the additional inferred resource, the potential to expand the mineral resource and the exploration potential from the nearby Nkalonje project.

Songwe Hill is planned to be a conventional openpit contract mining operation, feeding mills, flotation and hydrometallurgy plants on site, in Malawi, to produce a mixed rare earth carbonate, with mining expected to start in February 2025, processing expected to ramp up from July 2025 and full production expected from September 2025.

The DFS sets out average production of about 5 954 t/y of TREO for the first five years of full production, including 1 953 t/y of neodymium and praseodymium oxides and 56 t/y of dysprosium and terbium oxides, in a mixed rare earth carbonate grading 55% TREO.

This is expected to generate nominal earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of $215-million a year.

From years 6 to 18, the mine is expected to produce 4 081 t/y of TREO in mixed rare earth carbonate.

The mixed rare earth carbonate produced from Songwe is expected to be a high-value product, averaging $32 816/t for the first full five years of production, based on pricing estimates from Adamas Intelligence.

Additionally, the mixed rare earth carbonate will be cerium depleted. Because cerium is currently considered to have challenging market fundamentals, there is a strong economic rationale to remove as much cerium as possible and, as a result, a large proportion of the cerium will be removed from the mixed rare earth carbonate during the hydrometallurgical process, Mkango says.

Energy supply for the project comprises a 24 MW solar facility supplemented with grid power, which, in Malawi, is largely from hydroelectric sources. Mkango is also evaluating wind power to further enhance and diversify the renewable power mix.

The project has an initial capital expenditure (capex) estimate of $277-million, excluding a $34-million contingency, for development of mine, mill, flotation and hydrometallurgy plants, tailings storage facility and related project infrastructure.

A major focus for the company will be further optimisation of the project with the objective of lowering capex and operating costs.

Further, the DFS estimates a post-tax net present value (NPV) of $559-million, using a 10% nominal discount rate, with an internal rate of return of 31.5%, a payback period of two-and-a-half years from full production, which is five years from start of capex, and estimated post-tax life-of-operations nominal cash flow of $2.1-billion.

The project's NPV excludes any value attributable to Mkango’s proposed Pulawy...