What have been the main highlights for Namibia Critical Metals over the past year?

Namibia Critical Metals continues to develop our Lofdal heavy rare earth project, which is a globally significant deposit of dysprosium and terbium; critical metals used in the production of permanent magnets used in EV motors and wind turbines. The project is fully licensed with a 25-year mining license and is development funded under our joint venture with the Japanese government agency JOGMEC (Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation). JOGMEC has completed term two of their earn-in and now owns 40% interest in the project, and they are currently spending another C$$10 million to earn another 10% interest. Over the past year, we have significantly advanced with the start of a pre-feasibility study (PFS) which is fully funded by JOGMEC. We are currently in the middle of pilot plant flotation and hydrometallurgical testing with SGS Canada to finalize our flow sheet and improve on efficiencies that were put out in the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) in November 2022. We expect to deliver the PFS by mid-2024.

Namibia Critical Metals also announced the formation of the Rare Earth Alliance Namibia (REAN), which is a joint venture with two other rare earth companies: E-Tech Resources, which is exploring the Eureka monazite deposit in central Namibia, and Ondoto Rare Earth, to conduct a feasibility study on a rare earth separation plant in Namibia. We are investigating the feasibility of building a separation plant that can handle the throughput of all three of our projects to separate into individual rare earth metals directly in Namibia.

What is your outlook for the dysprosium and terbium market?

I think the West has woken up to the fact that there is an overreliance on China for these critical metals, and people are starting to diversify the supply chain. This will still take some time, and although prices are currently too low for most projects to move forward, we believe that the prices will move to much higher levels in the mid to near term.

JOGMEC is currently actively marketing the project to some of the largest companies in the rare earth sector in Japan. Japan is the second largest consumer of rare earths outside of China.

Do you believe we will see more M&A and deal-making activity happen in Southern Africa?

I believe we will see heated M&A activity over the next few years, particularly in Namibia and South Africa where there is significant untapped potential. The majors rely on juniors to advance projects to a certain level before they will even look at the project, and as we are seeing more companies interested in exploring Southern Africa for critical minerals, M&A and deal-making is inevitable.

What differentiates Namibia as a mining jurisdiction?

The geology in Namibia is fantastic, and there are still large deposits to be discovered. Namibia is a huge country with an extremely small population, making it perfect for exploration. There is a well-established mining sector that has been in place for 50 years, and as a result, the country has a well-established regulatory framework for companies to work within. It is a safe jurisdiction to work in.

We have been operating in Namibia for over 10 years, and from day one, we made it a key priority to fully engage with the community and provide as much support as we could. Over the years, we have addressed several issues, including funding a local orphanage in a nearby town, providing free water wells for farmers near our exploration site, and starting an "Early Learner's Assistance Program" where we support approximately 250 school children and provide them with uniforms and school supplies.

What makes Namibia Critical Metals a great story for investors?

Namibia Critical Metals is hitting milestone after milestone at Lofdal, and we have a premier joint venture partner to fully fund the project through to commercial production. There is still considerable upside to growing the resource even further, and the next catalyst for us will be a robust PFS that we will put out mid-2024, and hopefully bringing in a large industrial Japanese company into the venture, which will enable us to rapidly accelerate the project even further.