Modern Mining November 2023

ENERGY MINERALS

we have assets in our portfolio that we will develop to the point that they are attractive to potential buyers, and which we will sell off to interested parties.” Meanwhile, the critical and strategic metals focused company has identified three key projects it would like to develop - the HCK lithium project in Rwanda and two “incredible copper prospects” in Morocco – Tata and AZRAR. “We believe Rwanda has the potential to become a new lithium destination. The geology of the country, which has histori cally been mined by artisanal miners, has significant potential. Although the country is littered with LCT pegmatites – lithium and tantalum bearing pegmatites –it is a matter of the type of lithium we discover. Ideally we

would like to discover spodumene given that global markets utilise this type of hard rock lithium for their refineries.” explains Bray. He adds that the Moroccan assets have the potential to be phenomenal scale copper projects, each consisting of a strike length of between 20-24 kilometres. “Copper grades range from 0,8% copper up to 1.8% cu. In fact, all three projects are exciting because they have the potential of scale.” Strategy for the next two years Given its focus on monetising its existing asset-base, Aterian is in the process of launching its trading busi ness in Rwanda and is currently negotiating off-take agreements with several artisanal miners. “The trading business, Eastinco Ltd, should ensure that the Rwanda business is cash genera tive and will initially support the Rwandan arm of the business. Over time it should support the rest of our exploration business as we ramp up to the next stage of project developments. Besides that, we would like to realise the potential for royalties from our other assets. With our strategy of monetising our asset base we have, for instance, negotiated a 2% net smelter royalty on the Rio Tinto transaction.” The trading business targets small scale produc tion from multiple artisanal miners in Rwanda.

entity’s portfolio of assets in Rwanda and Morocco. “We are taking a clinical approach to our asset base given that we have some exploration assets that are going to appeal to mining majors. For these assets we plan to undertake preliminary analysis and prepare the ground properly so the mining majors feel comfortable advancing a due diligence on the assets, and ideally, enter into joint ventures with us. Secondly, we have a set of assets that

An image of the Tata project landscape in Morocco.

Ore from from the Jebilet project.

will appeal to miners with operating assets and who are look ing to partner on

potential assets with high return value. In fact, we are currently in discussions with several compa nies. Thirdly, we have assets that we would like to develop ourselves and will advance these to the next level of development within the short-to-medium term. Finally,

20  MODERN MINING  November 2023