Alba Mineral Resources plc has agreed a 51% stake in, and operatorship of, the Motzfeldt niobium-tantalum-zirconium-rare earth element project in the Gardar Province in southern Greenland.
ARIES
The project adds to Alba’s portfolio of a 26.15% share in spin-out GreenRoc Strategic Materials plc, the Finnbo REE and gold earn-in in Sweden and its Clogau-St David’s gold mine in north Wales.
The company has also completed £500,000 fundraise via a 15% discounted placing of 3,235,294,118 new ordinary shares at a price of 0.017 pence per ordinary share with institutional investors.
One two-year warrant is attached to every two placing shares, with an exercise price of 0.0255 pence.
Following admission of the placement shares, Alba’s total number of ordinary shares in issue will be 14,777,016,067, each with one voting right and none held in treasury.
Net proceeds will advance Motzfeldt, Finnsbo and the next phase of blasting and bulk sampling at Clogau.
The new acquisition will cost Alba £30,000 cash and £945,000 in Alba shares issued in two tranches for a total 3,914,664,458, issued at a 10% premium of 0.02414p.
The company said that Motzfeldt was one of only five ‘critical raw mineral’ projects in Greenland granted “very large deposit” status by Danish & Greenlandic Geological Survey(GEUS), and one of only two “multi-element CRM [critical raw minerals] projects with scale”.
The JORC-compliant resource includes the Aries deposit holding an inferred resource of 340 million tonnes, containing 41,000t tantalum, 629,000t of niobium, 1.56Mt of zirconium and 884,000t of total rare earth oxides.
Alba added that the average uranium content in Aries was 70ppm, “well within” the 100ppm maximum threshold set by Greenland in 2021.
Other prospects include the Voskop, Merino and Romney targets.
“The Motzfeldt project is situated within the Motzfeldt Centre of the Ilímaussaq intrusive complex, one of the world’s largest known alkaline igneous systems,” said Alba.
“The project covers a substantial area and hosts a large zone of mineralisation enriched in
critical metals that are essential to the green energy transition and advanced technologies.
“The current project owners have partnered with the University of St Andrews, experts in the Motzfeldt Centre style of mineralisation, over the past three years to develop an exciting new model for high-grade REE mineralisation at Motzfeldt.”
Alba estimates that previous operators have completed £5 to 6 million work, including two drill programmes and field and technical work programmes at Motzfeldt.
Project owner Elemental Rare Metals Ltd, which will hold 49% post-transaction, plans a field programme to delineate a “significant mineralised body” at Merino and provide data for an inaugural drilling campaign.
Alba also aims to conduct a detailed mineralogical and metallurgical study of Aries and begin a scoping study or preliminary economic assessment for £350,000 expenditure.
Alba chairman George Frangeskides is a founder, and owns 49.9% interest in ERM with 1,814,703,811 shares.
Chief financial officer Sarah Potter owns 62,137,531 in ERM and has, independently of Alba, provided accounting services to ERM which will be paid from the transaction to settle accrued fees.
COMPELLING
In a join statement independent non-executive directors Elizabeth Henson and Michael Nott said: “Motzfeldt’s multi-commodity potential, particularly in niobium, tantalum, zirconium and rare earths, positions us strongly to support the transition to a low-carbon global economy.
“In addition to Motzfeldt’s strategic geology and resource base, its alignment with the critical raw material priorities of governments in the US, UK, EU and other allied economies opens up the possibility of public and institutional support for the project.
“This offers us a significant opportunity – the potential to access grant funding, development loans, or strategic partnerships, which would enable us to advance the project with far less dilution than would traditionally be required on the public markets.
“This is a compelling differentiator.”