Special Report: The renewal of retention Licence 1693 and the granting of two new exploration licences at Ionic’s (ASX:IXR) Makuutu rare earths project in Uganda has now been finalised.

This is important for two reasons.

One, the renewal of a retention licence for two years — following the submission of a positive Scoping Study — demonstrates the Ugandan Government’s confidence in Ionic’s capacity and ability to develop this project.

Two years is enough time to complete key activities required to support the Mining Licence application and advance Makuutu to a financial investment decision, Ionic says.

Two: these additional exploration licences substantially increase the potential scale of the project:

Scale is a critical factor for rare earth companies, driving better efficiencies and providing lower operating costs, critical infrastructure and lowering overall CAPEX intensity, Ionic managing director Tim Harrison says.

The company has now boosted its Makuutu exploration target by 50 per cent to 240–800 million tonnes grading 0.045-0.09 per cent (450-900 ppm) TREO.

“The scale and ultimate potential of the Makuutu Rare Earths Project continues to surprise on the upside,” Harrison says.

“The new exploration target announced today represents an increase of 50 per cent from the previous target, and with the resource update planned for Q1 2021, we expect that the scale of the project will grow substantially.

“The modular development concept we have identified is perfectly suited for expanding the scale of the project to accommodate future increases in mineralised resources.

“The potential for Makuutu to become a significant critical and heavy rare earths producing asset is becoming increasingly obvious as the project develops.”

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Ionic, 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.