Lindian Resources Limited, an Australian Stock Exchange (ASX)-listed mining firm, says it has made significant progress on finance discussions regarding its Kangankunde Rare Earths Project in Balaka District, as it met potential financiers in United States of America (USA).
The company said this in an update to shareholders after it successfully conducted a North American investment road show to progress discussions with multiple potential funding parties and investors.
Reads the update: “Meetings were held with multiple target parties, including current off-take partner Gerald Metals Sarl, part of the Gerald Group, USA Government bodies, rare earths industry participants as well as magnet manufacturers and investor groups.
“Since the release of the feasibility study on July 1 2024, the range of interested parties has expanded and there is also strong interest expressed for the funding of Kangankunde stage one and potentially stage two.”
According to the update on ASX, the company is currently in the process of reviewing funding options and will provide an update to the market when there is a definitive outcome.
Lindian Resources Limited chief executive officer Alwyn Vorster is quoted in the statement as having said the company has made good progress across multiple project areas.
He said: “Our recent investor marketing activities in the United States in the past two weeks have significantly broadened awareness of Kangankunde as a future large-scale, high grade, low-cost rare earths project.
“We also continue to optimise designs, negotiate contracts, create employment structures for the mobilisation of Lindian’s Malawi operations team and identify the candidates to represent Lindian during construction.”
Vorster said while the initial objective has been to secure funding for stage one development in the third quarter of 2024, new funding options have emerged on the back of the feasibility study, including scenarios that contemplate funding solutions for stages one and two of the project’s development.
The development comes at a time the company secured an off-taking contract with Gerald Metals for the supply and sale of 45 000 metric tonnes of monazite concentrate from the stage one development of Kangankunde while retaining the right for Lindian to enter into additional sales contracts with other counterparties.
In an interview on Tuesday, geologist Grain Malunga said the process of mobilising financing is the critical stage of companies that are about to commence extraction activities.
“Considering how slow mining projects move to reach actual extraction, Lindian is the fastest project Malawi has experienced because it did not face serious obstacles during all stages such as licensing, exploration and feasibility, probably because it inherited the project from another company,” he said.
Malunga, who is former minister of Mining, said at this stage, a medium- scale mining project such as Kangankunde would take a minimum of nine months to start mining activities, but for large-scale projects, it could take 18 months or more.
In a separate interview, former Ministry of Mining geologist Ignatius Kamwanje said the rare earths found at Kangankunde are unique which could easily attract financiers.
“This is the time the communities surrounding Kangankunde should start benefiting from the project given the good relationship the company has built with them,” he said.
The results of phase three drilling programme under exploration showed that Kangankunde has one of the world’s best rare earths deposits with excellent grade, non-radioactive material, a high neodymium/praseodymium radio and enormous scale.
