REG - Aterian PLC - Licence acquisition and joint broker appointment

AterianAnnouncement

08/01/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 8677Y  Aterian PLC  08 January 2024

8 January 2024

 

Botswana Acquisition - Copper and Lithium Brine Opportunity

Appointment of Corporate Joint Broker

 

Aterian Plc

("Aterian" or the "Company")

 

Aterian Plc (LSE: ATN), the critical metal-focused exploration and development
company, is pleased to announce that it has signed a Share Purchase Agreement
("SPA") to acquire a controlling 90% interest in Atlantis Metals (Pty) Ltd
("Atlantis"), a private Bostwana registered entity holding mineral prospecting
licences in the Republic of Botswana ("Botswana"). Atlantis currently holds
four licences covering a combined area of 3,516 km(2), with one licence
targeting copper in the world-renowned Kalahari Copperbelt and three licences
for lithium brine exploration within the Makgadikgadi region of northern
Botswana.

 

Highlights:

·      Aterian will acquire a 90% interest in Atlantis Metals (Pty) Ltd,
which holds four prospecting licences in Botswana.

·    A 999 km(2) prospecting licence for copper exploration in the
world-renowned Kalahari Copperbelt, located in northern Botswana; the licence
is located 50 km east of Khoemacau Copper Mining's Zone 5 Mine (92.9 million
tonnes grading 2.00 % Cu and 21 g/t Ag).

·     An additional three licences covering a combined 2,517 km(2) for
lithium brine exploration over an area east of Sua Pan in the Makgadikgadi
Pans.

·     The vendor who will retain a 10% Atlantis shareholding is a private
Botswana citizen and a professional geologist who will manage Atlantis and
Botswana exploration activities for the Company.

·      The licences are located close to good infrastructure, including
national highways and power.

 

Charles Bray, Chairman of Aterian, commented:

"This announcement underscores our strategy of responsibly exploring and
mining for critical minerals and metals across Africa, a region vital for a
successful energy transition. The signing of this SPA, to acquire substantial
mineral licence assets in Botswana, further expands our presence on the
continent. It perfectly fits our strategy of focusing on the critical metals,
copper and lithium, in stable jurisdictions.

 

Furthermore, these new lithium brine licences in Botswana underscore our
advancing lithium exploration efforts in Rwanda, where we recently announced
an earn-in JV with Rio Tinto. We have been busy and look forward to updating
the market on our continued exploration efforts.

 

Aterian also owns copper assets in Morocco that are showing increasingly
promising results and our new licence in the Kalahari Copperbelt complements
this growing work to develop this critical energy transition metal."

 

Key Terms of the SPA

 

Aterian will acquire a 90% interest in Atlantis Metals (Pty) Ltd and assume
responsibility for funding exploration activities.

 

The SPA is subject to certain conditions precedent, including the change of
control approval by the relevant authorities, completion of financial and
corporate due diligence and the transfer of shares in Atlantis to a nominated
subsidiary of Aterian.

 

The holder of the outstanding 10% interest in Atlantis is a private Botswana
citizen who is a professional geologist and is expected to be retained for a
minimum 12-month contract to provide management and exploration services.

 

Exploration expenditure commitments, acquisition consideration, and
professional service fees will total a minimum of US$ 80,000 and be payable
over the 12 months following the signing of the SPA.

 

 

The Kalahari Copperbelt

The Atlantis licence is situated approximately 100 km southwest of the town of
Maun in the Ghanzi District. It comprises one tenement, Prospecting License
2622/2023 and lies on the eastern margin of the highly prospective Kalahari
Copper Belt ("KCB") of northwest Botswana. The project is approximately 50 km
east of Khoemacau Copper Mine's ("KCM") Zone 5 Mine, designed to produce
60,000 to 65,000 tonnes per annum of copper and 2 million ounces per annum of
silver metal in concentrate. Furthermore, the Zone 9 Cu-Ag prospect, owned by
KCM, is within 30 km of the license area.

 

The Kalahari Copperbelt is regarded as one of the world's most prospective
areas for yet-to-be-discovered sediment-hosted copper deposits (USGS, 2020)
and hosts several large stratabound, sediment-hosted copper-silver deposits.
The KCB is a northeast-trending Meso- to Neoproterozoic belt that occurs
discontinuously from western Namibia and stretches into northern Botswana
along the northwestern edge of the Paleoproterozoic Kalahari Craton. It is
approximately 1,000 km long by up to 250 km wide and contains copper-silver
mineralisation, generally stratabound, hosted in metasedimentary rocks that
have been folded, faulted and metamorphosed to greenschist facies during the
Damara Orogeny. Typically, the deposits comprise stratabound disseminated to
structurally controlled ore bodies that are 5 to 40 m thick and have strike
lengths of 1.5 to 4 km. The main target for copper mineralisation is towards
the base of the D'Kar Formation, close to the contact of the underlying red
beds of the Ngwako Pan Formation.

 

In November 2023, MMG Limited, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange,
announced that it had entered into a Share Purchase Agreement to acquire the
parent company of the Khoemacau Copper Mine (wholly owned by the private
company Cuprous Capital Ltd) in Botswana, for an effective enterprise value of
US$ 1.875 billion.

 

Makgadikgadi Lithium Brine

The licences (PL2328/2023, PL2338/2023 and PL2621/2023) cover 2,517 km(2).
They are located along the eastern and southern shores of Sua Pan, within the
Central District, with Sua Pan comprising one of three pans forming the
Makgadikgadi Salt Pans. The pans lie in a flat savanna approximately 900 m
above sea level. As a means of boosting exploration investment, the
Makgadikgadi Pans region has been officially declared a "Lithium Zone" by the
Ministry of Mines and Energy since 2022 due to a history of known lithium
brine occurrence and the emergence of new Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE)
technologies capable of rendering once-thought uneconomic deposits, economic,
typically having lower CAPEX and OPEX compared to conventional evaporation
methods. Historical data reported in a 1980s study of the Sua Pan brines by
the US Trade and Development Program indicated anomalous lithium values. The
samples were collected from the northern area of Sua Pan and returned values
of 103, 117 and 223 mg/l Li (note that the source and precise sample location
are unknown at this time).

 

The Makgadikgadi pans are in part oriented along a Tertiary graben of the
Pan-African rift and occupy the lowest point (890 - 900 m.a.s.l.) in the
Kalahari, which in the past received water from the proto Zambezi River
resulting in a significant inland lake of around 66,000 km(2). Sua Pan is
currently fed by the ephemeral Nata River and other smaller intermittently
flowing stream catchments (Semowane, Mosetse, and Mosope Rivers), all of which
drain gently sloping terrain to the east, which consists of thick Kalahari
sediments and arenosols, punctured by Archaean granite outcrops and underlain
by Carboniferous-Jurassic sandstone and basalts. The later three west-flowing
rivers drain greenstone and granitic basement terrain, potentially providing a
lithium source. Some water carried into the pans evaporates, leaving a surface
of precipitated salts. The rest of the water percolates into the subsurface,
where, over time, the concentration of the dissolved material is increased to
the point of forming a brine with the salts of elements such as lithium,
boron, potassium, and other salts. Concentrated brine's total dissolved solids
(TDS) range from 90,000 to 190,000 mg/L.

 

Work Plans

Given the early-stage nature of the new licences, initial workstreams will
concentrate on data collection and acquisition from the Ministry of Mines and
Energy to allow for a desktop review and target generation exercise. This will
be supported by preliminary reconnaissance of the licences with first phase
soil sampling if deemed appropriate and water sample collection from
pre-existing wells within the area of Sua Pan.

 

Appointment of Joint Broker

Aterian is pleased to announce the appointment of SP Angel Corporate Finance
LLP ("SP Angel") as a joint corporate broker with immediate effect.

 

 

- ENDS -

 

This announcement contains information which, prior to its disclosure, was
inside information as stipulated under Regulation 11 of the Market Abuse
(Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019/310 (as amended).

 

For further information, please visit the Company's website:
www.aterianplc.com (http://www.aterianplc.com) or contact:

 

Aterian Plc:

Charles Bray, Executive Chairman - charles.bray@aterianplc.com
(mailto:charles.bray@aterianplc.com)

Simon Rollason, Director - simon.rollason@aterianplc.com
(mailto:simon.rollason@aterianplc.com)

 

Financial Adviser and Joint Broker:

Novum Securities Limited

David Coffman / George Duxberry

Tel: +44 (0)207 399 9400

 

Joint Broker:

SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP

Ewan Leggat / Kasia Brzozowska

Tel: +44 20 3470 0470

 

Financial PR:

Bald Voodoo - ben@baldvoodoo.com

Ben Kilbey

Tel: +44 (0)7811 209 344

Notes to Editors:

About Aterian plc

www.aterianplc.com (http://www.aterianplc.com)

 

Aterian plc is an LSE-listed exploration and development company with a
diversified African portfolio of critical metals projects.

Aterian plc is actively seeking to acquire and develop new critical metal
resources to strengthen its existing asset base whilst supporting ethical and
sustainable supply chains as the world transitions to a sustainable, renewable
future. The supply of these metals is vital for the development of the
renewable energy, automotive and electronic manufacturing sectors that are
playing an increasing role in reducing carbon emissions and meeting climate
ambitions globally.

 

The Company recently entered into a joint venture agreement with Rio Tinto
Mining and Exploration Limited for Rio Tinto to earn into the HCK project in
southern Rwanda and holds two further partnerships in Rwanda to explore
and develop lithium-tantalum-niobium-tin mining operations. Aterian currently
has a portfolio of 17 copper-silver and base metal projects in the Kingdom of
Morocco, with a project area of 897 km2.

 

The Company's strategy is to seek new exploration and production opportunities
across the African continent and to develop new sources of critical mineral
assets for exploration, development, and trading.

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