Corporate Update - Hastings Technology Metals

Cadence Minerals PLC

12 September 2023

 

Cadence Minerals Plc

("Cadence Minerals", "Cadence", or "the Company")

Corporate Update - Hastings Technology Metals

Cadence Minerals (AIM/NEX: KDNC; OTC: KDNCY) is pleased to note the announcement by Hastings Technology Metals (ASX: HAS) ("Hastings") and thyssenkrupp Materials Trading ("TMT") to expand the terms of the offtake contract signed in April 2021 to align with Stage 1 development for the Yangibana Rare Earths Project.

Hastings has agreed with TMT to include up to two-thirds of Stage 1 rare earth concentrate from Hastings' flagship Yangibana Rare Earths Project ("Yangibana" or the "Project"). The remaining one-third of production during the first five years not under TMT offtake is available to Hastings to maximise value through spot sales or other commercial arrangements.

Highlights:

·      Hastings and TMT have agreed to expand the terms of the offtake contract signed in April 2021 to align with Stage 1 development for the Yangibana Rare Earths Project.

·      TMT offtake expanded to rare earth concentrate under the Stage 1 development plan, in addition to Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate ("MREC").

·      TMT also commits to increasing its volume to two-thirds of Yangibana's annual production volume for the first five years, commencing in Q2 2025.

All other terms and conditions of the contact signed with TMT on 20 April 2021 remains unchanged. The offtake terms will satisfy the Project's debt financing and bankability requirements underpinning the optimal funding structure.

The expanded offtake is aligned with the two-stage development strategy for the Yangibana Project, as announced on 31 May 2023, supporting an enhanced project delivery model that enables a pathway to first concentrate production in 1H 2025 and early cash flows. Hastings' Stage 2 development of a hydrometallurgy plant or via third party tolling of concentrate during Stage 1 will produce up to 15,000tpa of MREC containing ~3,400tpa of NdPr oxides.

thyssenkrupp Materials Services is the biggest mill-independent materials distributor and service provider in the Western world with around 380 locations, including around 260 warehouse sites, in more than 30 countries. The versatile range of services offered by the materials experts allows customers to focus even more strongly on their individual core businesses.

Link here to view the full Hastings announcement

Hastings Executive Chairman Charles Lew commented: "Building on our strong relationship with thyssenkrupp Materials Trading, we are pleased to have extended the terms of the offtake to increase the committed volume and include concentrate as well as MREC from Stage 1 of the Yangibana Project to meet bankability requirements."

"We are at an advanced stage of finalising the optimal project debt finance and this commitment from thyssenkrupp reiterates the cooperative spirit in which we work with our long term partners to reach our objective of bringing Yangibana into production".

Cadence shareholding in Hastings

On 25 January 2023, Cadence completed the sale of its 30% stake in several mineral concessions forming part of the Yangibana Rare Earths project for a consideration of 2.45 million Hastings shares. This consideration was a premium over the Net Present Value ("NPV") of the Cadence portion of the mineable material, based on the definitive feasibility ("DFS") updated by Hastings on 21 February 2022. Currently Cadence holds approximately 1.4% of Hastings issued share capital.

The full announcement concerning the Yangibana sale is available here.

For further information contact:
Cadence Minerals plc	[phone]
Andrew Suckling
Kiran Morzaria
WH Ireland Limited (NOMAD & Broker)	[phone]
James Joyce
Darshan Patel
Brand Communications	[phone]
Public & Investor Relations
Alan Green

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) from CASS Business School.

Cautionary and Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this announcement are or may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as "believe", "could", "should", "envisage", "estimate", "intend", "may", "plan", "will", or the negative of those variations or comparable expressions including references to assumptions. These forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts but rather on the Directors' current expectations and assumptions regarding the company's future growth results of operations performance, future capital, and other expenditures (including the amount, nature, and sources of funding thereof) competitive advantages business prospects and opportunities. Such forward-looking statements reflect the Directors' current beliefs and assumptions and are based on information currently available to the Directors.  Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements, including risks associated with vulnerability to general economic and business conditions, competition, environmental and other regulatory changes actions by governmental authorities, the availability of capital markets reliance on key personnel uninsured and underinsured losses and other factors many of which are beyond the control of the company. Although any forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are based upon what the Directors believe to be reasonable assumptions. The company cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the company to constitute Inside Information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (E.U.) No. 596/2014, as it forms part of U.K. domestic law under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended. Upon the publication of this announcement via a regulatory information service, this information is considered to be in the public domain.

 

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