Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Northern Minerals has abandoned the A$26-million sale of a minority interest in its Browns Range heavy rare earths project, in Western Australia.
In February last year, Northern Minerals launched a fully underwritten rights issue, which was underwritten by shareholder Conglin Yue and his investment company Australia Conglin International Investment Group (ACIIG).
However, Northern Minerals this week withdrew from continued negotiation for the sale of a 16% interest in the Browns Range project to ACIIG, saying that recent metallurgical testwork and an increase in resource had progressed Northern Minerals well beyond the stage when the deal was initially contemplated.
“While negotiations have ceased, the company still has the continued support of its major shareholder, who has a major participating interest in the recent A$5.4-million placement achieved earlier this year, in addition to fully underwriting last year’s rights issue,” the company said.
The junior noted that by maintaining full interest in the project, it provided additional flexibility when investigating other funding options to fund the project’s expected capital expenditure.
A prefeasibility study on the Browns Range project is scheduled for release before the end of the June quarter. The Browns Range project currently has a mineral resource estimate of 4.13-million tonnes, at 0.68% rare-earth oxides, for 28 084 t of total rare earth oxides.