Ark Mines raises $1.5m to accelerate rare earths exploration and development

• Ark Mines raises $1.5m to expedite exploration and development at its Sandy Mitchell REE project
• Share placement fully subscribed by professional and sophisticated investors
• Company keen to move ahead with development of the project

Special Report: Investors have backed Ark Mines’ belief in the potential of its advanced Sandy Mitchell placer rare earths project in North Queensland by supporting a $1.5m placement to expedite exploration and development.

The share placement of more than 10.7 million shares at 14c each was fully subscribed by professional and sophisticated investors.

This ensures that Ark Mines (ASX:AHK) is now fully funded to expedite the rare earths exploration and development program at Sandy Mitchell.

“I am excited to have raised this extra capital as it allows us to expedite our rare earth development program,” managing director Ben Emery said.

“We are of the opinion that our North Queensland rare earth placer sand deposit package is highly marketable and we are keen to move it ahead.”

Sandy Mitchell project

The Sandy Mitchell project has a high confidence measured resource of 71.8Mt at 1,732.7ppm monazite – a mineral containing REEs – equivalent.

There is potential for exploration to deliver scale that could place it in a similar ballpark as Red Metal’s (ASX:RDM) Sybella project in northwest Queensland given the exploration target of 1.3 billion to 1.5 billion tonnes at 1,286 to 1,903 ppm MzEq.

A scoping study released in December has placed a $120-150m cost on a development underpinned by the current measured resource.

This is expected to generate annual EBITDA of $45m-$53m and annual post-tax-free cash flow totalling ~$25m-30m while payback is expected within 3-4 years from first rare earth mineral concentrate production.

It benefits from ease of mining as mineralisation is near-surface with minimal topsoil and no overburden.

Processing is expected to be simple with in situ processing using gravity only, with no chemicals, salts or acids required.

This also eschews the need for tailings dams and waste piles, making mining more economic and environmentally friendly.

This article was developed in collaboration with Ark Mines, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.