Cadence Minerals
Plc
("Cadence Minerals",
"Cadence", or "the Company")
Further Progress at the Amapa
Iron Ore Project
Cadence Minerals (AIM: KDNC) is
pleased to announce progress on the environmental applications and
the ongoing development of the 67% 'Green Iron' processing flow
sheet at the Amapá Ore Project ("Amapá", "Project" or "Amapá
Project").
Highlights:
· Submission of the Environmental Control Plan - "PCA" (Plano de
Controle Ambiental) and an Environmental Control Report - "RCA"
(Relatório de Controle Ambiental) submitted ahead of schedule for
the Mine and Railway.
· The PCA and RCA are part of the state environmental approval
process required to obtain an Installation License ("LI"), which,
once granted, allows construction at Amapá to commence.
· The port's environmental licensing is on schedule with the PCA
and RCA and is due to be submitted in the third quarter of this
year.
· Sampling of two tonnes of iron ore representing the life of
mine material is complete. This will be sent to an engineering firm
in China to test the 67% Fe "Green Iron" flow sheet.
Cadence CEO Kiran Morzaria
commented: "The Cadence Board and Management team are thrilled with the
recent uptick in the pace of developments at the Amapá Iron Ore
Project.
The early submission of our environmental reports underscores
the Project's commitment to sustainability and efficient project
management, and this, along with the anticipated approval of our
installation license for the current year, is paving the way for
the rehabilitation and commissioning of the Amapá Project. Our
dedication to the 'Green Iron' initiative reflects our vision for
an environmentally lower carbon iron ore product. I look forward to
reporting further progress to you in the coming weeks and
months."
Licensing
As announced in September 2023,
Amapá Project Management had agreed with the Amapá State
Environmental Agency ("SEMA") to an expedited environmental
process, given the Project had previously been granted all its
Operational Licenses ("LO").
The PCA and RCA for the mine and
railway were submitted to SEMA last week. SEMA will now review the
application. The RCA and PCA for the wholly-owned port continue
progressing, with the final reports due for submission in the third
quarter of this year. Our understanding from SEMA is that based on
the current timeline, the LI will be granted by the end of 2024.
The LI allows the rehabilitation and construction of the Amapá
Project, and once this is completed, the LO is granted, and mining
operations can commence.
67%
'Green Iron' Flowsheet
The Amapá Project Management team
continue to develop the 'green iron' flowsheet. Part of the work
entails carrying out a mineralogical and multi-elemental analysis
of run-of-mine ore, concentrate, and tailings, along with testing
the full circuit at a pilot-scale level. To this end, the Project
has completed a life-of-mine sampling, collecting approximately two
tonnes of material, which will now be shipped to our independent
processing engineers in China.
About the Amapá Project and Cadence
Ownership
The Amapá Project is a brownfield
integrated iron ore project in the Amapá State of Brazil. It has
Mineral Resources of 276 million tonnes (Mt) at 38.33% Iron (Fe)
and Ore Reserves of 196 Mt at 39.34%. The Project consists of the
mine, processing plant, wholly owned port and a 194km railway, all
operated by PBA. A Pre Feasibility Study ("PFS") was published in
January 2023, which delivered a post-tax net present value of
US$949 million at a discount rate of 10% and a post-tax internal
rate of return of 34%, with an average annual life of mine EBITDA
of US$235 million annually. In the PFS, after ramp-up, the planned
yearly average production was forecast to be 5.3 Mtpa of Fe
concentrate, consisting of 4.4 Mtpa at 65.4% Fe and 0.9 Mtpa at 62%
Fe concentrate. Over the life of the mine, Amapá is forecast to
deliver free on-board C1 Cash Costs of US$35.53 / dry metric
tonne.
As of March 28th 2024,
Cadence's total investment in the Amapá Project had increased by
approximately US$1.1 million to approximately US$13.2 million, and
consequently, the equity stake in the project now stands at
33.6%.
For further information
contact:
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Cadence Minerals plc
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+44
(0) 20 3582 6636
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Andrew Suckling
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Kiran Morzaria
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WH
Ireland Limited (NOMAD & Broker)
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+44
(0) 20 7220 1666
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James Joyce
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Darshan Patel
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Fortified Securities - Joint Broker
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+44
(0) 20 3411 7773
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Guy Wheatley
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Brand Communications
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+44
(0) 7976 431608
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Public & Investor
Relations
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Alan Green
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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 considered forward-looking.
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
crucial 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
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.