Modern Mining August 2023

RARE EARTHS

Altona advances Monte Muambe, eyes geographic expansion LSE-listed Altona Rare Earths, a junior mining company progressing its flagship Monte Muambe project in northern Mozambique, remains receptive to attractive rare earths opportunities on the continent, Altona Rare Earths CEO, Dr Cédric V.G. Simonet, tells Modern Mining .

T he rare earths mineral developer, which recently made the jump from the Aquis Stock Exchange to the London Stock Exchange, is however, currently firmly focused on advanc ing its early-stage asset, and since acquiring the project in 2021, has been taking the resource up the value curve. On June 9, the company raised £2 million on its oversubscribed shares, having initially targeted £1.25 million in the capital raising. The Aquis Stock Exchange, a smaller UK stock exchange, was suitable when Altona Rare Earths was a smaller company. However, in line with its aspirations to grow its portfolio and subsequently, its market cap, the company looked to the LSE, one of the UK’s main exchanges that is highly attractive to mining investors. “We felt that the LSE was a more suitable vehicle to support the growth of our company as we tran sition from a micro-cap exploration company to a

small cap mining company. The move was eagerly anticipated by our investors and has been extremely well received. It is hearten ing to see the huge appetite from investors for rare earths projects, which are critical to the green energy transition,” explains Simonet. Aside from the company’s

corporate expenditure, the funds raised will be used pri marily to complete a JORC mineral resource estimate and scoping study. Altona Rare Earths is also looking to increase its project holding to 51% and lodge a mining concession application dur ing the course of 2023 as well initiate associated prefeasibility study activities. The funds are expected to last for a year, after which the explorer will go to the markets once more to raise funding to progress the project through to pre-feasibility study (PFS) stage. The PFS is expected to take between 18 and 24 months. “Initially, we will place much of our emphasis on metallurgy - an extremely important parameter for a PFS and on environmental and social baseline stud ies which we will undertake at the onset of the PFS, after which we will advance our infill drilling pro gramme to determine the viability of expanding the resource base.” Altona Rare Earths has been exploring Monte Muambe since August 2021 and in November 2022, advanced its resource drilling programme and sub sequently published an exploration target estimate last year. “We are currently preparing our maiden JORC mineral resource estimate, which will be published during the third quarter 2023,” says Simonet. The prospecting license for Monte Muambe – a carbonatite project – covers a tenement of roughly 40 km² with the mineralised bearing zone located within a 15 km² basin. “The legacy drilling data initially highlighted the presence of rare earth elements, with grades and

Altona Rare Earths has been exploring Monte Muambe since August 2021.

20  MODERN MINING  August 2023