Bacanora Board Changes and Corporate Update

RNS Number : 0092Q

Rare Earth Minerals PLC

24 November 2016

 

Rare Earth Minerals Plc

("Rare Earth Minerals", "REM" or "the Company")

Bacanora Board Changes and Corporate Update

Bacanora Minerals Ltd ("Bacanora") (AIM: BCN and TSXV:BCN) has today announced changes to the composition of its board and a corporate update.

Changes to Board of Directors of Bacanora

Bacanora is pleased to announce that Mark Hohnen, Non-Executive Director of the Company, has assumed the role of Chairman with immediate effect.  James Leahy, interim Non-Executive Chairman, will resume his role as Non-Executive Director of the Company. 

Mr. Hohnen has a long track record of creating value through the development of resource projects, as demonstrated during his time as Director of Kalahari Minerals and Extract Resources and in his current role as Director of Swakop Uranium, which is developing the world's second largest uranium mine and the largest mine development in southern Africa. 

Additionally, Bacanora announces the appointment of Ray Hodgkinson as a Canadian based Non-Executive Director of the Company, replacing Shane Shircliff who has stepped down from this role to pursue other business interests.   Mr. Shircliff served as CEO of Bacanora from May 2013 to May 2015 and as a director from February 2014 to present.  Ray Hodgkinson resides in Canada and has both substantial public company and natural resource experience.  He is very familiar with Bacanora having been on its Board between 2006 and 2013, prior to its AIM listing. 

Mr. Raymond John Hodgkinson (aged 60) has previously worked as an engineering consultant to Striker Exploration Corp., Exoro Energy Inc. and Ripper Oil & Gas Inc. He has been an Independent Director of Westcore Energy Ltd. since March 2007 and a Director of Troy Energy Corp. since September 2009. He served as Chief Operating Officer of Aztek Energy Ltd. from June 1, 2006 to January 2010.  He served as a Director of Tembo Gold Corp (formerly Lakota Resources Inc.) from October 2009 to July 15, 2011.  He has 30 years of experience in the natural resources sector and is a Member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta. Mr. Hodgkinson received Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering from University of Calgary in June 1977.

Set out below are details of Mr. Hodgkinson's current directorships and those that he has held within the last five years.

Current Directorships	Past Directorships (past 5 years)
Troy Energy Corp.	Bacanora Minerals Ltd.
Westcore Energy Ltd.	Tembo Gold Corp.
	Aztek Energy Ltd.

Mr. Hodgkinson has an interest in 756,050 common shares in Bacanora.  There is no further information on Mr. Hodgkinson, which is required to be disclosed under Schedule Two, paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies

Corporate Update

Bacanora and Rare Earth Minerals plc (AIM/ISDX: REM; OTC REMMY), together advise that the financing condition in the conditional lithium hydroxide supply agreement ("the Agreement") previously announced on 28 August 2015 has not been met under the terms of the Agreement.  We advise further that we have had extensive discussions with the customer as to the feasiblity of securing project specific financing pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Agreement, that those discussions have now concluded, and therefore we are discontinuing further efforts to secure project specific financing pursuant to the Agreement.

It remains Bacanora's strategy to focus on the production of lithium carbonate to service the rapidly growing Asian and European markets for electric vehicles and energy storage. Sales of lithium carbonate represent some 75% of the current world market of lithium products.

During the year Bacanora has rapidly advanced the Sonora Lithium Project, the pre-feasibility study which was published in March and showed positive economics returns, from a development plan that involved ramping up production to 35 Kt of LCE over 2 years. In addition, Bacanora has demonstrated that it can produce battery-grade lithium carbonate from the ore at the Sonora Lithium Project and has distributed samples of its product for preliminary appraisal and testing by potential end-users.

The Sonora Lithium Project consists of ten mining concession areas covering approximately 100 thousand hectares in the northeast of Sonora State. It has an Indicated Mineral Resource (in accordance with NI 43-101) of 4.5 million tonnes (LCE) and 2.7 million tonnes (LCE) within the Inferred category. 

Bacanora continues to focus on its core business which is the completion of the Sonora lithium carbonate Feasibility Study ("FS") targeted for completion at the end of Q1, 2017 and the advancement of discussions with potential lithium carbonate customers.

Qualified Person:

Kiran Morzaria B.Eng. (ACSM), MBA, has reviewed and approved the information contained in this announcement. Kiran holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Industrial Geology) from the Camborne School of Mines and an MBA (Finance).

REM owns a direct interest of 19.12% of Bacanora. The Sonora Lithium Project is comprised of the following lithium properties:

- La Ventana, La Ventana 1, and Megalit concessions, which are 100 percent owned by Minera Sonora Borax S.A. de C.V.("MSB"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bacanora; REM, through its direct interest of 19.12% of Bacanora, has an indirect interest in these concessions of 19.12%.

- El Sauz, El Sauz 1, El Sauz 2, Fleur and Fleur 1 concessions, which are held by Mexilit S.A. de C.V. ("Mexilit"). REM has a 30% direct interest in Mexalit through its Joint Venture with Bacanora, and when combined with REM's direct interest of 19.12% in Bacanora, has a total economic interest in Mexalit of 43.38%.

- The Buenavista, and San Gabriel concessions, which are held by Megalit S.A de C.V ("Megalit"). REM has a 30% direct interest in Megalit through its Joint Venture with Bacanora, and when combined with REM's direct interest of 19.12% in Bacanora, has a total economic interest in Megalit of 43.38%.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.

- Ends -

For further information, please contact: 

Rare Earth Minerals plc

Andrew Suckling                                                                                                                          [phone]

Kiran Morzaria                                                                                                                 

WH Ireland Limited (NOMAD & Broker)                                                                            [phone]

James Joyce

James Bavister

Square1 Consulting                                                                                                                     [phone]

David Bick

Brian Alexander

 

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