Monte Muambe Rare Earths

The Monte Muambe REE Project in Mozambique is a World Class carbonatite hosted REE exploration and development project.

Monte Muambe is 4km diameter circular carbonatite intrusion and is located in Tete Province, Northwestern Mozambique. The project is held under Prospecting Licence 7573L. The tenement has a surface area of 39.39 km2, within which there are no human settlements.

Altona entered into an agreement on 24 June 2021 to acquire up to 70% of the project by fulfilling phased work commitments and scheduled payments to its original owners. 

Exploration started in August 2021 and included a thorough soil sampling survey, Diamond Drilling and Reverse Circulation drilling (totaling about 7,800m so far), as well as ground geophysics.

The Company is strongly focused on the high-grade parts of the deposit (>1% Total Rare Earth Oxides (“TREO”), with about 2.5% TREO in average), in order to rapidly move towards development. The size and geometry of the orebodies are favorable to open-pit mining.

Mineral Resource Estimate

On 25 September 2023, the Company published a maiden JORC compliant Mineral Resource Estimate (“MRE”). The MRE was prepared by Snowden Optiro and covers two distinct mineralized bodies, Target 1 and Target 4. It has been reported in consideration of reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction (RPEEE) using pit shells based on a 1.5% TREO cut-off, revenue of 24.65 USD/kg TREO in Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate (MREC) and an average total recovery to MREC of 48%.

The complete Competent Person Statement prepared by Snowden Optiro is available by clicking here. The MRE is summarized in the table below.

Notes:

• Million tonnes are rounded to one decimal place.  Grades are rounded to two decimal places for % and whole numbers for ppm.
• Mineral Resources are reported as dry tonnes on an in-situ basis.
• Rare earth elements are inclusive of the TREO and not additional to it.
• “NdPr Oxide” is the sum of Nd2O3 and Pr6O11.

The estimate includes 42,500 tons of contained Neodymium (“Nd”) and Praseodymium (“Pr”) Oxides. These elements are the most sought after “Magnet Metals” due to their usage in the manufacture of power drivetrains for electric vehicles (“EV”) and wind turbines. They are therefore critical for the world’s energy sources decarbonisation, and the future of the EV market relies just as heavily on sustainable sources of Nd and Pr as it does on battery minerals, such as lithium, graphite and cobalt. 

Scoping Study

On 18 October 2023 Altona published an updated Competent Person Report including a Scoping Study for Monte Muambe. 

The results provided an encouraging initial validation of the Project’s potential, with highlights including:

• Post-tax NPV 8(2) of US$ 283.3 million.
• Post-tax IRR(3) of 25%.
• Payback from first production: 2.5 years.
• Production of 15,000 tonnes per annum, on average, of Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate (“MREC”), at an average price of US$ 13,558.4 per tonne of MREC.
• 18 years Life of Mine (“LoM”).
• Open pit mining operation, 750,000 tonnes of ore extracted and processed per annum.
• Two stage recovery process, consisting of comminution and flotation, followed by hydrometallurgy.
• LoM EBITDA of US$ 1.67 billion.
• Initial Capex of US$ 276.3 million.

The Competent Person Report is available for download in the Documents, Reports and Presentations section of the website.

MRE Increase Potential

As shown on Figure 1, there is significant potential for an increase in tonnage for future MRE updates, which the Company will achieve through:

• Down-dip drilling at Target 1 and Target 4.
• Resource drilling at Target 3 and Target 9, which have already shown the presence of high-grade ore.
• On-going follow-up exploration on other targets generated through the soil sampling survey done in 2022 and geological mapping and modeling.  

These activities will take place from Q4 2023.

Next Steps

The Company has now embarked on the production of a Prefeasibility Study for Monte Muambe and is currently focusing on metallurgical studies undertaken by SGS Lakefields in Canada and Auralia Metallurgy in Australia. 

The primary objective is to produce a high-grade Rare Earth concentrate in order to improve the economics of the Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate production process. The possible separation and recovery of fluorspar, another critical raw material present in the ore at Monte Muambe, will also be assessed. 

The Prefeasibility Study will include an upgrade of the Mineral Resources Estimate, and the preparation of an Ore Reserves Statements.

The completion of the Prefeasibility Study (Phase 3 of the earn-in agreement) will take Altona’s ownership of the project from the current 51% to 70%.

In December 2023 Altona’s subsidiary Monte Muambe Mining Limitada has applied for a Mining Concession for a duration of 25 years. The application is currently being processed by the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy.

Note: The words ‘JORC Compliant’ should be interpreted as ‘Reported in accordance with the JORC Code and estimated (or based on documentation prepared) by a Competent Person as defined by the JORC Code’, in accordance with the JORC Code 2012.

GENERAL INFORMATION ON MOZAMBIQUE

The Monte Muambe project is located in the Tete Province. This province hosts several operating coal mines, a major iron mining and steel manufacturing project, and many exploration projects for a wide range of commodities. The project area is easily accessible, 30km off a major tarred road linking Mozambique to Malawi and with access to a railway to the port of Nacala. The Tete Province has ample power supply with the presence of the 2GW Cahora Bassa hydroelectric power plant and an advanced stage 300MW coal-fired power station project.

Mozambique is a stable country with a well-developed exploration and mining industry, trained workforce, and available drilling and exploration contractors. Security in Tete Province and in the project area is excellent.

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