Sesana Copper Project Final Agreement
27 January 2025
ALTONA RARE EARTHS PLC
("Altona" or "the Company")
SESANA COPPER PROJECT FINAL AGREEMENT
Altona (LSE: REE), a resource exploration and development company focused on critical raw materials in Africa, is pleased to announce that, further to the exercise of the Sesana copper project option announced on 29 July 2024, it has entered into a final agreement with Ignate African Minerals (Pty) Ltd ("Ignate") with respect to prospecting licence PL2329/2023 ("Tenement"), located in the Kalahari Copper Belt in Botswana.
Sesana copper project final agreement signature
Further to the signature of a binding option agreement with Ignate with respect to the Tenement announced on 9 April 2024, and to the exercise of the option announced on 29 July 2024, Ignate and the Company have signed the final agreement, which will allow the Company to acquire an interest of up to 85% in the Tenement, in consideration for payments in three tranches spread over a period of four years totalling USD 110,000 in cash and USD 250,000 in new Altona shares ("Shares"), with phased exploration technical and expenditure commitments . The agreement is subject to conditions precedents including the transfer of the Tenement to Sesana Copper (Pty) Ltd, a Botswana-registered company held 51% by Altona and 49% by the shareholders of Ignate.
These payments and minimum expenditure commitments are broken down as follows:
|
Phase |
Payments to Ignate shareholders |
Expenditure commitments |
% of Tenement earned-in by Altona |
|
Phase 1 (12 months) |
USD 50,000 in Shares(1) |
USD 100,000 (geophysics, definition of drilling targets) |
51% |
|
Phase 2 (18 months) |
USD 50,000 in cash USD 100,000 in Shares(2) |
USD 400,000 (initial drilling, 2,000m minimum) |
70% |
|
Phase 3 (18 months) |
USD 50,000 in cash USD 100,000 in Shares(3) |
USD 1,000,000 (maiden JORC mineral resource estimate, conceptual study) |
85% |
(1) Shares will be priced at the VWAP for the 10 days before the signature of the final agreement and issued when the conditions precedents are fulfilled
(2) Shares will be priced at the VWAP for the 10 days before the start of phase 2
(3) Shares will be priced at the VWAP for the 10 days before the start of phase 3
Post this earn-in period, non-funding parties will be diluted according to a standard straight line dilution formula and, if their interest falls below 10%, it will be replaced by a 1% Net Smelter Royalty.
Should a resource of over 20 million tonnes at over 1% Cu equivalent be defined, the original Tenement owner will also be entitled to a one-off payment of USD 250,000 in cash and USD 250,000 in Shares issued at the VWAP for the 10 days before the announcement of the corresponding resource statement.
The Tenement is located in the Kalahari Copper Belt, about 25km from the low-cost Khoemacau Copper-Silver underground mine, and close to Galileo Resources' licence PL039/2018 and ARC Mineral's licence PL135/2017 (Virgo Copper-Silver Project). Recent interpretation of regional airborne magnetic data shows that a ca. 10km long stretch of the contact between the D'Kar and Ngwako Pan formations contact is passing through the northern part of the Tenement, along the eastern margin of a fold structure, which makes it a perfect setting for copper-silver mineralisation.
The project is currently undergoing environmental permitting processes to enable the start of exploration activities on the ground. Exploration activities will start with high-resolution geophysical surveys in order to identify and select the most promising drilling targets along the D'Kar / Ngwako Pan formations contact, and will be followed by drilling.
Cedric Simonet, CEO of Altona, commented: "I am very pleased to start 2025 with this significant step forward for the Sesana copper project. The signature of the Sesana copper project final agreement will enable the Company to focus on on-going environmental permitting to enable the start of exploration activities as soon as possible."
This announcement contains information which, prior to its disclosure, was inside information as stipulated under Regulation 11 of the Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019/310 (as amended).
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-ends-
Altona Rare Earths Plc
Cédric Simonet, CEO +44 (0) 7778 866 108
Louise Adrian, CFO +44 (0) 7721 492 922
Novum Securities Limited +44 (0) 20 7399 9400
David Coffman
Daniel Harris
About Altona Rare Earths Plc
Altona is a resource exploration and development company focused on critical raw materials in Africa. The Company is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange with the ticker "REE". The Company currently holds copper, fluorspar and rare earths projects.
The Monte Muambe rare earths and fluorspar projects is located in Northwest Mozambique. The Project was acquired in June 2021, and the Company has so far drilled over 7,800m, and defined a maiden JORC Mineral Resource Estimate of 13.6 million tons at 2.42% TREO. A Competent Person Report including the Scoping Study for Monte Muambe was published on 18 October 2023. The Project is now at Prefeasibility Study stage, with a focus on metallurgical testing for rare earths extraction.
The Company is also assessing the possibility of rapidly putting in production high-grade fluorspar veins occurring at Monte Muambe along the western margin of the rare earth bearing carbonatite intrusion.
Altona is presently diversifying its portfolio by acquiring a limited number of critical raw material projects to complement Monte Muambe. The acquisitions of the Kabompo South copper project in Zambia and of the Sesana copper-silver project in Botswana, located just 25 km from MMG's Khoemacau Zone 5 copper-silver mine, represent the first steps towards the implementation of this expanded strategy.
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