25
January 2024
Neometals
Ltd
("Neometals" or "the
Company")
Quarterly Activities
Report
For the quarter ended 31
December 2023
Highlights
Corporate
·
Capital raising completed for ~A$12.1 million
(share placement for A$9.0 million together with entitlement issue
subscriptions for A$3.1 million); and
·
Cash balance of A$19.5 million, investments of
A$24 million and no debt.
Core Battery Materials
Business Units
Lithium-ion Battery ("LiB") Recycling (50% NMT via Primobius
GmbH, an incorporated JV with SMS group GmbH)
·
Advanced construction and commenced installation
of shredding "Spoke" plant for Mercedes-Benz, purchase order for
refinery "Hub" awarded post end of quarter;
·
Successful operation of the 2,500 tpa integrated
Pilot plant for Mercedes-Benz will precede offer of integrated
20,000tpa plant for Stelco planned in JunQ 2025 under technology
licensing agreement; and
·
Outstanding lithium and nickel quality test work
results from demonstration trial, and life-cycle carbon assessment
indicated potential for ~85% lower global warming footprint than
mined battery materials.
Lithium Chemicals (Co-funding pilot plant with Bondalti
Chemicals SA group via Reed Advanced Materials Pty Ltd
("RAM") (70% NMT, 30%
Mineral Resources Ltd)
·
Completion of purification stage of pilot test
work program at SGS in Canada. Purified brine delivered to
electrolysis and product crystallisation pilot plant laboratories
for testing in MarQ 2024; and
·
Preparations for demonstration plant and
engineering studies continue and ongoing advanced discussions
between RAM and Lifthium Energy SA (sister company of Bondalti) for
a new cooperation framework for the commercialisation of RAM's ELi™
process in Portugal.
Vanadium Recovery (Technology 100% NMT via Avanti Materials
Ltd)
·
Technical support provided to Recycling Industries
Scandinavia AB ("RISAB")
(72.5% NMT) to commercialise the technology through the development
of the Vanadium Recovery Project ("VRP1") in Finland; and
·
Advanced testing activities and commercial
discussions with potential feedstock providers under technology
licensing business model.
Upstream - Mineral
Extraction
Barrambie Titanium and Vanadium ("Barrambie") (100%
NMT)
·
Tenement maintenance activities with focus on
commercial discussions in relation to product offtake and equity
investment.
Spargos Lithium Project (100% NMT)
·
Activities associated with reviewing and updating
historical data sets, field verification, re-sampling, and assaying
of logged pegmatites in historical drilling core
- final assay results
pending.
Company Overview
Neometals is focussed on
commercialising three environmentally-friendly processing
technologies that produce critical and strategic battery materials
at lowest quartile costs with minimal carbon footprint.
Through strong industry
partnerships, Neometals is demonstrating the economic and
environmental benefits of sustainably producing lithium, nickel,
cobalt and vanadium from lithium-ion battery recycling and steel
waste recovery. This reduces the reliance on traditional mine-based
supply chains and creates more resilient, circular supply to
support the energy transition.
The Company's three core business
units are exploiting the technologies under principal, joint
venture and licensing business models:
·
Lithium-ion Battery ("LiB") Recycling (50% technology) -
Commercialisation via Primobius GmbH JV (NMT 50% equity). All
plants built by Primobius' co-owner (SMS group 50% equity), a
150-year-old German plant builder. Providing recycling service as
principal in Germany and commenced plant supply and licensing
activities as technology partner to Mercedes-Benz. Primobius
targeting first commercial, fully integrated, 21,000tpa plant offer
to Canadian company Stelco in the JunQ 2025;
·
Lithium Chemicals (70% technology) -
Commercialising patented ELi™ electrolysis process, co-owned 30% by
Mineral Resources Ltd, to produce battery quality lithium hydroxide
from brine and/or hard-rock feedstocks at lowest quartile operating
costs. Co-funding Pilot Plant trials in 2023 with planned
Demonstration Plant trials and evaluation studies in 2024 for
potential 25,000tpa LiOH operation in Portugal under a JV with a
related entity of Bondalti, Portugal's largest chemical
company; and
·
Vanadium Recovery (100% technology) - aiming to
produce high-purity vanadium pentoxide from processing of
steelmaking by-product ("Slag") at lowest-quartile operating
cost. Targeting partnerships with steel makers and participants in
the vanadium chemical value chain under a low-risk, low-capex
technology licensing business model.
Figure 1
- Location map of
Neometals' Projects together with partner
developments.
Core Battery Materials Business
Units
|
Lithium-ion Battery
Recycling
(Intellectual Property via ACN 630 589 507 Pty Ltd- NMT 50%,
SMS
50%)
Commercialising
via Primobius GmbH, NMT 50% SMS group GmbH 50%
|
Primobius GmbH ("Primobius") is the 50:50 incorporated
joint venture established in 2020 to co-fund the commercialisation of the
lithium-ion battery recycling technology ("LiB Recycling Technology") originally
developed by Neometals.
The LiB Recycling Technology
recovers materials contained in LiB production scrap and
end-of-life cells that might otherwise be disposed of in land fill.
Current LiB recycling processes predominantly rely on high carbon
emission pyrometallurgy processes. Primobius' two stage process
recovers nickel, cobalt, lithium and
manganese battery materials (and physically recovers metals and
plastics) into saleable products that can
be reused in the LiB supply chain. The LiB Recycling Technology
prioritises maximum safety, environmental sustainability, and
product recoveries, to support the circular economy and
decarbonisation.
Figure 2
- High level
flowsheet showing the movement of materials from Shredding and
Beneficiation
('Spoke') through to refining ('Hub') stages for the LiB Recycling
Technology.
Intellectual Property Status
During the quarter the LiB Recycling
Technology IP holding company, ACN 630 589 507 Pty Ltd
("ACN630"), was granted two
more national phase patents (in Singapore and Eurasia
respectively). Three patents have now been granted with fourteen
other national phase patents at various stages of prosecution
globally.
Commercialisation Status
Primobius' current business model
contemplates the following revenue sources:
1. Disposal fees (for LiBs
supplied by multiple waste aggregators delivering predominantly
whole modules) and sale of recovered products (metallic scrap,
chemical intermediates and chemicals purchased by various recyclers
and smelting customers) from its Disposal Operation in Hilchenbach,
Germany;
2. Mechanical equipment and plant supply; and
3. Royalties from licensing proprietary, patented recycling
process.
Hilchenbach Disposal Operation
The Spoke section of the
demonstration plant in Hilchenbach Germany ("Hilchenbach Spoke") is providing
commercial LiB disposal services and the hydrometallurgical
refinery 'Hub' operates as a demonstration plant for discrete
customer trials, research and development.
The Hilchenbach Spoke produces
intermediate mixed nickel/cobalt product ("Black Mass"). The
typical LiB contains approximately 48% Black Mass which Primobius
is recovering at high levels and selling to a number of global
offtakers on a spot basis with pricing set according to nickel and
cobalt content.
Mechanical Equipment and Plant Supply
Primobius' key near-term commercial
agreements are summarised below:
·
A Cooperation Agreement with Mercedes-Benz's
("Mercedes") ("Mercedes Cooperation") for the
engineering, equipment supply and installation for a 2,500tpa fully
integrated, closed-loop recycling plant ("Mercedes Pilot Plant"), 5 year
research, collaboration and development of an industrial-scale
solution for Mercedes[1]; and
·
Spoke and Hub equipment and plant supply
agreements relating to the Mercedes Pilot Plant.
Technology Licensing
·
Technology licensing and joint venture option
agreements with a subsidiary of Stelco Inc. ("Stelco") ("Stelco Agreements") which plans to
secure large volumes of end-of-life vehicles in North America for
scrap steel and recycle LiBs, with offer of maiden 21,000tpa
integrated plant ("Stelco
Spoke" followed by "Stelco
Hub") expected before 30 June 2025 [2].
·
Three exclusive licences have been issued for
Scandinavia, the Balkans and Italy to third-party licensees and one
non-exclusive licence to the UK. Neometals is the largest
individual shareholder in the licensees and ACN630 is entitled to
receive a 10% gross revenue royalty from the technology
licences.
Activity Summary
During the quarter, Primobius made
significant technical and commercial progress highlighting its
potential to produce battery materials with
exceptionally low CO2 footprint. It also received its
second plant package purchase order from Mercedes on 10 January
2024. The offer and award of mechanical equipment package plant
supply agreements is underpinning a growing order book consistent
with the Company's preferred plant supply and technology
licensing/royalty business model. Primobius remains busy with
evaluation, engineering and design activities associated with the
above.
Significant activities
comprised:
Technical
·
Results of trials on a new lithium recovery option
for Primobius Hub plant packages confirmed lithium (in precipitated lithium fluoride) recoveries
exceeding 93% with purity of 95%. This
process improvement option can replace Primobius' current lithium
solvent-extraction circuit which produces lithium sulphate
("LiSO4") and is
expected to reduce both operating and capital costs. Lithium
Fluoride has historically traded at a significant premium to
lithium carbonate;
·
LiB recycling demonstration trial generated
battery-grade nickel sulphate exceeding Chinese cathode producer
specifications from recycling EV batteries; and
·
Positive results were announced from an
independent ISO-compliant cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment
("LCA") completed by
Minviro Ltd using detailed engineering data from operations and
demonstration trials:
o The LCA
focused on Primobius' production of key battery materials
(including lithium fluoride, nickel sulphate hexahydrate and cobalt
sulphate heptahydrate) and confirmed its integrated
hydrometallurgical refining process to have a significantly lower
carbon footprint than incumbent production pathways in terms of
global warming potential ("GWP"). Total GWP was confirmed to be
approximately 85% lower than comparisons with predominant EV supply
chains that start with primary mined nickel, cobalt and lithium
sources.
Figure 3
- Comparison of GWP impact for
producing key materials in Primobius' hydrometallurgical product
'basket' versus those same refined chemicals that originated
from primary mined extraction. Refining data for chemicals
was derived using Chinese (cobalt and lithium) and Indonesian
(nickel) operating benchmarks which represent the largest
manufacturing jurisdictions for the respective primary
products.
Commercial
•
Post the quarter end, Primobius was awarded a
purchase order (value ~ €18.8M (~ A$30.8M)) from Mercedes for the
supply of a hydrometallurgical refining Hub for installation at its
Kuppenheim Pilot Plant operation in Germany. PO covers fabrication,
installation and commissioning of the Hub which will refine
intermediate products from the 2,500tpa shredding 'Spoke' currently
being fabricated and installed;
•
Primobius amended the technology licence and
option agreements with 1340455 B.C. LTD, Stelco's lithium-ion
battery recycling special purpose vehicle ("Stelco SPV"):
o The
changes reflect Stelco's preferred business case to start up as a
fully-integrated operation (as opposed to staggered Spoke
operations followed by Hub to make integrated facility) to provide
the carmakers, who supply the end-of-life EVs, with a secure supply
of key battery cathode chemicals. The option agreement amendment
extends the option expiry date for Primobius to buy-in to Stelco
SPV until 30 June 2025. The technology licence amendment changes
the product offering from a shredding spoke to a hydrometallurgical
refinery hub and the product readiness date to 30 June 2025.
Primobius is working to achieve product readiness for its
commercial spoke plants by April 2024. Primobius plans to offer a fully-integrated plant supply
contract to the Stelco SPV (and other customers) in the June Q 2025
following completion of a detailed engineering study and final
factory acceptance testing of the fully-integrated Mercedes-Benz
2,500tpa pilot plant; and
•
Ongoing business development activities to build a
global pipeline of potential future recycling plants.
Figure 4 - Render of integrated Mercedes LiB Recycling
Pilot in Kuppenheim Germany.
Figure 5
- Real-time
photo of construction progress.
Corporate
•
Continued recruitment activities to expand the
Primobius technical, operational, commercial and management teams
in line with corporate milestones associated with offering
mechanical plant and equipment package supply contracts as demand
grows.
|
Lithium
Chemicals
(Intellectual
Property via Reed Advanced Materials Pty Ltd
("RAM") - NMT 70%, Mineral Resources
Ltd 30%)
RAM
co-funding pilot scale trials with Bondalti Chemicals SA (and
related entity)
|
Neometals, through RAM, is
commercialising its proprietary process (ELi™ Processing Technology ("ELi™")) to produce lithium hydroxide
from lithium chloride solutions using electrolysis. Neometals has used
ELi™ to convert lithium chloride solutions produced from both
natural spodumene and brine feedstocks at semi-pilot scale. ELi™
has the flexibility to produce lithium hydroxide and lithium
carbonate and at a significantly lower operating cost than for
conventional commercial production processes. ELi's key economic
advantage lies in the potential to replace costly, imported bulk
reagents for traditional carbonation and causticising processing
steps with electricity and low-cost internally generated reagents.
RAM holds 19 granted patents in the hard rock and brine producing
countries and has a further 12 pending patent
applications.
Evaluation studies in 2016 and 2023
indicated the potential for ELi™ to significantly reduce the operating
cost (~50%) and carbon footprint associated with production of
lithium hydroxide from lithium brine
sources.
Figure 6
- Schematic showing a
comparison of the conventional flowsheet for
the production of lithium hydroxide from brines with the patented
Eli™ process.
Intellectual Property Status
During the quarter RAM was granted a
national phase patent in Argentina and advised of the intention to
grant one patent in the USA. RAM holds 18 granted patents and 14
patents pending globally at various stages of prosecution across
three patent families covering hard rock and brine feedstock
flowsheets.
Commercialisation Status
Estarreja Lithium Refinery Project
In the December quarter 2021,
RAM entered into a Co-operation Agreement
("ELi Co-operation") with
Portugal's largest chlor-alkali producer, Bondalti Chemical SA.
Bondalti is part of the Jose De Mello Group, one of Portugal's
largest conglomerates, family controlled and founded in 1898.
Bondalti and RAM have co-funded evaluation activities to assess the
feasibility for construction and operation of a commercial-scale
lithium refinery ("Estarreja
Lithium Refinery" or
"ELR"") adjacent to Bondalti's chlor-alkali operations in
Estarreja, Portugal.
With the original Pilot Trial
activities nearing conclusion, and Bondalti's parent incorporating
a dedicated lithium subsidiary, Lifthium Energy SA ("Lifthium"), the Parties allowed the
current ELi™ Cooperation to lapse on the 30th September
2023. RAM and Bondalti are continuing to co-fund the agreed
Pilot Trials in parallel with with advanced discussions for a new
cooperation agreement which is intended to address the completion
of evaluation activities, construction of a demonstration plant and
Front-End Engineering and Design Study ("ELi™ FEED Study") as well as key
commercial terms for licensing and operation.
Activity
Summary
The ELR opportunity was progressed
during the quarter with strong focus on Pilot Trial activities and
sourcing feedstocks for future demonstration and longer-term
commercial operations. A report based on trial results to provide
an updated to the Class 3 engineering and cost study
("Cl.3
ECS") will be prepared following
Pilot Trials.
Technical
·
Completed Pilot Trials comprising 3 stages being
'purification', 'electrolysis' and 'crystallisation'. The
purification test-work at SGS in Canada (processing concentrated
and purified salar brine (6% Li basis)) was completed during the
quarter and preparations are underway for the follow-on
electrolysis stage;
·
The purification testwork, conducted on a salar
brine feed source, confirmed earlier bench-scale testing by
removing >97% of brine feed source impurities. The result is the
production of a purified brine solution that is suitable feed for
the subsequent Pilot Trial electrolysis stage; and
Commercial
· Commercial dialogues were progressed with aspiring and
existing producers of lithium brine concentrates to develop terms
of supply to the ELR. This included ongoing discussions with the
commercial brine source feed suppliers to the planned Demonstration
Plant;
· Commercial discussions progressed with potential lithium
hydroxide offtake partners for the ELR; and
· Commercial discussions with potential ELi licensees in areas
outside Portugal and Spain.
Corporate
· Advanced negotiations for a new Cooperation Agreement with
Lifthium Energy SA to replace the expired RAM-Bondalti Cooperation
Agreement and to reflect the current status of activities and the
parties' commercial intentions.
|
Vanadium
Recovery (Intellectual Property via
Avanti Materials Ltd - NMT 100%)
Commercialising via Recycling Industries Scandinavia AB
("RISAB") - 72.5% NMT
|
Neometals is commercialising its
sustainable, proprietary vanadium recovery process ("VRP Technology") to produce vanadium
products for battery and aerospace alloying applications from
stockpiles of vanadium-bearing steel making by-product. The unique
selling points of the technology are:
•
A processing flowsheet utilising conventional
equipment at atmospheric pressure, mild-temperatures, and
non-exotic materials of construction (refer to figure
7);
•
Potential lowest-quartile operating
costs[3] from processing steelmaking
slags without upstream mining costs/risk/carbon footprint (refer to
figure 8); and
•
Likely very low or net zero greenhouse gas
footprint given the absence of mining and a processing route
requiring the mineral sequestration of CO2 into a
potentially saleable carbonate by-product which sequesters
CO2 (refer to figure 9).
Figure 7
-
High level
flowsheet of Neometals VRP Technology.
Figure 8
-
Vanadium Cost
Curve.
Figure 9
-
Carbon Footprint
for VRP1 at Pori, Finland highlighting benefit of sequestering CO2
in by-product.
Intellectual Property Status
During the quarter the Vanadium
Recovery IP holding company, Avanti Materials Ltd, had a request
for national phase examinations of its foundation patent from two
countries and has separately lodged an additional national phase
patent for the recovery of Vanadium from leach residues in 10
countries.
Commercialisation Status
Vanadium Recovery Project 1 - Finland
Neometals and unlisted Scandinavian-focused explorer, Critical Metals
Ltd ("Critical"), are
jointly evaluating the feasibility of recovering high-purity
vanadium pentoxide ("V2O5") from high-grade vanadium-bearing
steel by-product ("Slag")
in Scandinavia. Neometals has funded and managed evaluation
activities earning a 72.5% interest in an incorporated JV RISAB
with Critical.
In March 2023, Neometals announced
results of a feasibility study ("VRP1 FS") based on the AACE® Class 3
engineering cost study completed by Nordic engineering group Sweco
Industry OY. The VRP1 FS confirmed
the potential for lowest-quartile operating costs
in a high-purity vanadium chemical
operation with a low-to-negative carbon
footprint4.
A take-or-pay offtake agreement has
been struck with Glencore International AG and the VRP1 is at the
financing stage ahead of a decision to construct and produce
high-purity vanadium pentoxide from high-grade vanadium-bearing
steel making by-product ("Slag") under a feedstock supply
agreement with SSAB EMEA AB and SSAB Europe Oy (collectively
"SSAB").
During the quarter Neometals
provided notice to its partner in the VRP1 project confirming it
does not wish to proceed with providing equity for the construction
of a slag processing facility in Finland.
Neometals has requested that RISAB
consider alternative methods of funding, including outright sale of
the VRP1 project holding company. Neometals has reverted to a
technology licensing business model to commercialise its
proprietary VRP Technology. Neometals is engaging directly with
potential technology licensing partners as well as assisting RISAB
in the process of seeking funding for the project.
While RISAB continues to evaluate
funding alternatives for the project the European Investment Bank
has approved provision of debt financing for the project and
Business Finland has approved the provision of a 15 million Euro
grant. Both are conditional on equity financing stream and other
condition precedents applicable to transactions of this
type.
Figure 10 - Aerial schematic showing
location for the proposed VRP1 processing plant at Tahkoluoto port,
Pori, Finland.
Upstream - Mineral
Extraction
|
Barrambie Titanium/Vanadium
Project (Neometals
100%)
|
The Barrambie Vanadium and Titanium
Project in Western Australia ("Barrambie") is one of the largest
vanadiferous-titanomagnetite ("VTM") Mineral Resources globally
(280.1Mt at 9.18% TiO2 and 0.44%
V2O5), containing the world's second
highest-grade hard rock titanium Mineral Resource (53.6Mt at 21.17%
TiO2 and 0.63% V2O5) and
high-grade vanadium resource (64.9Mt at 0.82%
V2O5 and 16.9% TiO2) subsets
(referred to as the Eastern and Central Bands respectively) based
on the latest Neometals 2018 Mineral Resource Estimate[4].
Barrambie is located approximately
80km north-west of Sandstone in Western Australia ("WA") and the
Mineral Resource is secured under a granted mining lease. Neometals
secured environmental approval in 2012 to mine and construct a 3.2
Mtpa processing plant (Ministerial Statement 911), extended the
timeframe for implementation in 2019 (Ministerial Statement 1119)
and is currently in the process of securing a further extension of
the timeframe for project implementation. The project also has a
granted mining proposal to extract approximately 1.2Mtpa of
mineralisation.
The current stage of development
sees Neometals deeply engaged with third-party titanium producers
and mining services companies in relation to offtake, equity
investment and contract mine-to-port solutions.
Activity Summary
During the quarter the following
activities were undertaken:
Technical
·
Metallurgical variability assessments completed in
relation to comminution and grind size determination
completed. Bulk metallurgical variability assessments
temporarily paused;
·
Regional exploration completed across Barrambie
tenure to maintain tenements in good standing;
·
Completion of seismic surveys, rehabilitation of
drill lines, soil analysis and rock chip sampling, and a geological
database risk assessment;
·
Flora and vegetation studies continued during the
quarter. Field programs to assess the potential of saline
water prospects continued with next steps dependant on cultural
heritage surveys. Baseline monitoring including dust, weather and
water table depth continues; and
·
3 day on-country meeting held with Yugunga-Nya
community and elders to discuss the project and request cultural
heritage surveys.
Corporate
In parallel with its evaluation and
commercial activities, Neometals continues to assess the optimal
strategy to return Barrambie value to shareholders. This includes
ongoing engagement with third-party titanium producers and mining
services companies in relation to offtake, equity investment and
contract mine-to-port solution.
|
Spargos Lithium
Project (Neometals
100%)
|
The Spargos Project ("Spargos"), located 50 kilometres southwest of
Coolgardie in WA, comprises a legacy mineral tenement that was
originally acquired for nickel prospectivity. Spargos is located in
an area of regional interest. Specifically, the Mt Ida fault in the
Yilgarn region of WA is attracting attention for its rare metal
pegmatites. The fault line hosts lithium projects such as Delta
Lithium's ("Delta") Mt Ida
Lithium project and Liontown Resources ("Liontown") Kathleen Valley. Liontown
and Delta's projects share a similar geological setting to Spargos
with pegmatites that have intruded their greenstone belts in close
proximity to the Mt Ida fault. Both are flanked by large granite
fluid sources and have been intruded by late-stage Proterozioic
dykes.
Figure 11 -
Location of the
Spargos Project Relative to Major Western Australia Lithium Mines
or Developments
in the Goldfields Area (Publicly Available Lithium Resource Data
Sourced from Department of Mines,
Industry Regulation and Safety 1 May 2023).
Activity Summary
During the quarter the following
activities were undertaken:
Technical
·
Pegmatites were identified within the Spargos
greenstone belt in historical mapping from the 1970's.
·
Historic diamond core and RC holes recorded the
presence of multiple pegmatites down hole in the existing
database[5].
·
Re-sampling of the priority holes that NMT retains
focused on all intrusions intersected with pegmatitic texture or of
felsic origin, in total 617 samples were taken and dispatched to
Intertek Genalysis laboratory during the month of December. Assays
results are pending.
·
A Spargos field visit was completed during the
month of November.
Key observations
·
Observations of the drill core suggests the
historic "pegmatite" interpretations logged encompassed all felsic
intrusive material including pegmatitic and granitic textures as
well as bucky quartz veins.
·
Outcrop was restricted to sediment/BIF horizons,
mafic and ultramafic lithologies. No outcropping pegmatites were
found.
·
The orientation of interpreted pegmatite could
only be corroborated in one location (QVRK094) but observations
support the interpreted narrow, short range geometry of felsic
intrusives;
·
Observations support the location of the
southeastern granite-greenstone contact position.
Results to date
·
Final diamond core assays results are yet to be
received due to delays at the laboratory due to staffing shortages
during the Christmas period and Covid 19 disruptions.
Tenement Admin
·
During the quarter a Heritage Protection Agreement
was executed by Ecometals with the Marlinyu Ghoorlie Claimant
Group.
·
The 2022-2023 Annual Technical Report was
submitted to DMIRS.
Next Steps
·
The Company's datasets are being updated with
historic data not currently in the database, sourced from
historical reports.
·
Consultation with lithium experts including key
geochemical and geophysical experts being contracted to assist in
future lithium exploration including review of existing geophysical
and geochemical data sets.
·
Completion of Heritage surveys for exploration
drilling
·
Completion of Ground gravity survey targeting
>10m wide pegmatite intrusions.
·
Field site prep for exploration drilling planned
post heritage surveys.
·
Further field mapping in areas of poor access for
outcropping pegmatites.
Neometals core focus remains the
commercialisation of its downstream battery materials technologies
however we will further investigate what could be a significant
value opportunity for shareholders that could also provide
Neometals' with a presence across the entire Li-ion supply
chain.
Corporate
FINANCIAL
Redivium Ltd (Formerly Hannans Limited) (ASX: RIL) (Redivium)
(Battery Recycling)
As at 31 December 2023 Neometals
held 879,812,014 ordinary fully paid shares (~26% of the issued
capital) in Redivium on an undiluted basis. Redivium holds
exclusive technology licences to Neometals' original LiB Recycling
Technology in Italy and the Balkans, a non-exclusive licence in the
United Kingdom and it is earning a 50% interest in an exclusive
licence for Scandinavia held by Critical Metals Limited.
Critical Metals Limited (Unlisted, Scandinavian
Lithium/Cobalt/Base Metals)
Neometals holds ~18.4% of unlisted
public company Critical Metals Ltd, a company which holds an
exclusive licence to Neometals' original LiB Recycling Technology
in Scandinavia and 27.5% interest in RISAB.
Finances (unaudited)
Cash and term deposits on hand as of
31 December 2023 totalled $19.5 million, including $0.2 million in
restricted use term deposits supporting contractual obligations.
The Company has net receivables of $2.0 million and investments
totalling $24 million.
Related Party payments for the
quarter outlined in the ASX Appendix 5B released contemporaneously
at section 6.1 total $279,375 and are made up of Director fees and
superannuation.
Issued Capital
The total number of shares on issue
as at 31 December 2023 was 622,690,316.
Authorised on behalf of Neometals by
Christopher Reed, Managing Director.
For
more information, please contact:
Neometals Ltd
|
|
Chris Reed, Managing Director &
Chief Executive Officer
|
+61 8 9322 1182
|
Jeremy McManus, General Manager - IP
& IR
|
+61 8 9322 1182
|
Cavendish Capital Markets Limited - NOMAD & Joint
Broker
|
|
Neil McDonald
|
+44 (0)131 220 9771
|
Peter Lynch
|
+44 (0)131 220 9772
|
Adam Rae
|
+44 (0)131 220 9778
|
RBC
Capital Markets - Joint Broker
|
+44 (0) 20 7653 4000
|
Paul Betts
|
|
Jamil Miah
|
|
Camarco PR
|
+ 44(0) 20 3 757 4980
|
Gordon Poole
|
|
Emily Hall
|
|
Lily Pettifar
|
|
Compliance Statement
The information in this report that
relates to Mineral Resource Estimates for the Barrambie
Vanadium/Titanium Project is extracted from the ASX Announcement
listed below, which is also available on the Company's website
at www.neometals.com.au.
17/04/2018
|
Barrambie - Updated Barrambie
Mineral Resource Estimate
|
The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or
data that materially affects the information included in the
original market announcements and that all material assumptions and
technical parameters underpinning the estimates in the market
announcements continue to apply and have not materially changed.
The Company confirms that the form and context in which the
Competent Persons' findings are presented have not been materially
modified from the original market announcements.
Appendix
Appendix 1: Global Resource
Table 1: Barrambie Mineral Resource Estimate, April
2018*
Appendix 2: Tenement
Interests
As at 31 December 2023, the Company
has an interest in the following projects and tenements in Western
Australia.
Project
Name
|
Licence
Name
|
Beneficial
Interest
|
Status
|
Barrambie
|
M57/173-I
|
100%
|
Live
|
Barrambie
|
E57/769-I
|
100%
|
Live
|
Barrambie
|
E57/770-I
|
100%
|
Live
|
Barrambie
|
E57/1041-I
|
100%
|
Live
|
Barrambie
|
E57/1220
|
100%
|
Pending
|
Barrambie
|
E57/1244
|
100%
|
Pending
|
Barrambie
|
E57/1245
|
100%
|
Pending
|
Barrambie
|
E57/1379
|
100%
|
Live
|
Barrambie
|
E57/1401
|
100%
|
Pending
|
Barrambie
|
E20/1037
|
100%
|
Pending
|
Barrambie
|
L57/0030
|
100%
|
Live
|
Barrambie
|
L57/0064
|
100%
|
Pending
|
Barrambie
|
L57/0065
|
100%
|
Pending
|
Barrambie
|
L57/0066
|
100%
|
Pending
|
Barrambie
|
L20/0055
|
100%
|
Live
|
Barrambie
|
L20/0080
|
100%
|
Live
|
Barrambie
|
L20/0081
|
100%
|
Live
|
Queen Victoria
Rocks
|
E15/1416-I
|
100%
|
Live
|
Changes in interests in mining tenements Interests in mining
tenements acquired or increased
Project
Name
|
Licence
Name
|
Acquired or
increased
|
Barrambie
|
E57/1379
|
Granted
|
Interests in mining tenements relinquished, reduced, or
lapsed
Project
Name
|
Licence
Name
|
Relinquished, reduced, or
lapsed
|
|
Barrambie
|
E77/2809
|
Withdrawal
|
|
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
About Neometals
Neometals has developed and is
commercialising three environmentally-friendly processing
technologies that produce critical and strategic battery materials
at lowest quartile costs with minimal carbon footprint.
Through strong industry
partnerships, Neometals is demonstrating the economic and
environmental benefits of sustainably producing lithium, nickel,
cobalt and vanadium from lithium-ion battery recycling and steel
waste recovery. This reduces the reliance on traditional mine-based
supply chains and creating more resilient, circular supply to
support the energy transition.
The Company's three core business
units are exploiting the technologies under principal, joint
venture and licensing business models:
· Lithium-ion Battery ("LiB") Recycling (50% technology)
- Commercialisation via Primobius GmbH JV (NMT 50% equity). All
plants built by Primobius' co-owner (SMS group 50% equity), a
150-year-old German plant builder. Providing recycling service as
principal in Germany and commenced plant supply and licensing
activities as technology partner to Mercedes-Benz. Primobius
targeting first commercial, fully integrated, 21,000tpa plant offer
to Canadian company Stelco in the JunQ 2025;
· Lithium Chemicals (70% technology) - Commercialising patented ELi™ electrolysis process, co-owned
30% by Mineral Resources Ltd, to produce battery quality lithium
hydroxide from brine and/or hard-rock feedstocks at lowest quartile
operating costs. Co-funding Pilot Plant trials in 2023 with planned
Demonstration Plant trials and evaluation studies in 2024 for
potential 25,000tpa LiOH operation in Portugal under a JV with
related entity to Bondalti, Portugal's largest chemical company;
and
· Vanadium Recovery (100% technology) - aiming to enable sustainable
production of high-purity vanadium pentoxide from processing of
steelmaking by-product ("Slag") at lowest-quartile operating cost.
Targeting partnerships with steel makers and participants in the
vanadium chemical value chain under a low risk / low capex
technology licensing business model.
For further information
visit www.neometals.com.au