Altona takes majority stake in monte Muambe
The London-based mining company Altona Rare Earths PLC has announced that it has taken a majority stake in the Monte Muambe rare earths project in northwestern Mozambique.
In a statement to the London Stock Exchange, the company explained that following the successful completion of Phase 2 of the project, its holding in Monte Muambe Mining Limitada has now increased from 20 to 51 per cent.
Monte Muambe Mining Limitada is the Mozambican company holding the prospecting licence and the transfer of the stake to Altona is subject to final approval by the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy.
According to the chief executive of Altona, Cedric Simonet, “We are delighted with this progress and the increase of the company's holding in Monte Muambe Mining Limitada to 51 per cent materialises the rewards of the completion of Phase 2, representing an important step in de-risking the project further”.
A scoping study published in October found that the project has a post-tax net present value (NPV) of 283.3 million US dollars and a post-tax internal rate of return of 25 per cent.
The study estimated that the payback from the beginning of production will be just 2.5 years. This is based on a production of 15,000 tonnes of mixed rare earth carbonate per year at an average price of 13,558 US dollars per tonne.
The review of the mine found that it is expected to have a life of 18 years using open-pit mining. The minerals will be recovered using a two-stage process, consisting of comminution (mechanically grinding up the material) and flotation, followed by hydrometallurgy (extracting the metals from the ore using aqueous solutions). The metal will then be packaged and transported by road to the port of Beira.
Rare Earth Elements are a group of seventeen metals that are used in a wide array of products including electric vehicles, wind turbines, mobile phone and laptop screens, alloys, ceramics, and weapon systems.
Seventy per cent of the world’s production of Rare Earth Elements comes from China, which has an even tighter grip on the minerals’ processing. For some Western strategists, this dominance in the supply chain is seen as a threat.
Monte Muambe is an extinct volcano located to the east of Moatize in Tete province.
TORRE
