Interview with Darrin Campbell, President & CEO of Namibia Critical Metals (TSX-V: NMI)

Recording date: 26th September 2023

Darrin Campbell, CEO of Namibia Critical Metals, discussed the company's heavy rare earth Lofdal project in Namibia. Lofdal's key rare earths are dysprosium and terbium, which are critical for permanent magnets used in EVs and wind turbines.

Namibia is a very mining-friendly jurisdiction where the company has worked for a decade and built strong government relationships. However, Namibia did recently ban unprocessed critical mineral exports, which won't impact Lofdal since they don't plan to export unprocessed rare earths.

Lofdal was previously too small when first drilled in 2012 at just a 6 million tonne resource. But in 2020, a drill program expanded the resource dramatically to 53 million tonnes after securing a partnership with Japanese agency Jogmec. Jogmec is spending $20 million to earn a 50% project interest.

This has allowed a revised PEA to show robust economics on the project with a $400 million NPV and 28% IRR. The vision is for Jogmec to bring in an industrial partner to further accelerate development. Campbell believes the project scale is sufficient for Jogmec given its heavy rare earth focus.

The next steps are completing a PFS by 2023 Q3, advancing pilot-scale metallurgy testwork, and assessing the feasibility of a rare earth separation plant in Namibia. The company is also seeking additional Japanese industrial partners and hopes to announce progress on that in the coming months.

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