Modern Mining October 2020

Elsewhere, EU demand for rare earths, used in high tech devices and military applications, is pre- dicted to increase tenfold by 2050. Significantly, the COVID-19 pandemic has also highlighted how deeply global supply chains can be disrupted in a short space of time, and the importance of ensuring resilience through a secure and sustain- able supply of critical raw materials. Target metals and destinations While the pool of strategic minerals is large, Critical Metals has identified antimony, beryllium,

cobalt, copper, fluorspar, tung- sten, titanium, tantalum and vana- dium, as its initial target metals. These commodities have been identified by several gov- ernments as “critical minerals”

competition in this space,” says Fryer. “We have identified projects from Kenya, all the way to South Africa. We are targeting countries like Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe,” says Fryer. “We have also set our sights on countries up north, such as Uganda and Rwanda. We have just gone through the first phase of identify- ing projects of interest.” “Our initial focus will be on small to medium known deposits as opposed to exploration. Our mantra is that the acquisitions have to be in produc- tion within 12 months of purchase. Exploration, on the other hand, takes about five years before you actually start building the mine. Exploration is like a lottery, you might win or not. One of the downsides is that exploration is capital intensive,” reasons Fryer. Experienced board Central to the success of the company in its endeav- ours will be the board’s experience in investing in

Set of various titanite rocks.

and so guaranteeing supplies is seen as a strategic necessity. “We believe that the market conditions of these minerals will remain strong in the short to long term,” says Fryer. With strong demand fundamentals and pricing, the initial focus is on near-term production oppor- tunities, prioritising cash flow generation over exploration upside and where the board believes opportunities have been overlooked and under- analysed. The company believes Africa, especially southern Africa, offers great opportunities. Critical Metals believes a big advantage of these minerals is that most of the large mining houses have no interest in them. “If you look at metals such as antimony, tungsten and vanadium to a lesser extent, global mining majors are not interested in them. We therefore don’t have much

Stibnite or antimonite ore.

October 2020  MODERN MINING  19