Shenghe supports the Australian mining company Peak Rare Earths in the development of its rare earth project in Tanzania and acquires shares in Ngualla.
The Australian mining company Peak Rare Earths is developing its Ngualla rare earth project in southern Tanzania. Financial and technical support will now come from the Chinese rare earth group Shenghe Resources. As Peak announced (PDF), a non-binding letter of intent has been signed to this end, in the course of which Shenghe will also acquire a 50 percent stake in the British Ngualla Group UK Limited (NGUK), which holds over 80 percent of the rare earth project. The remaining 50 percent of NGUK is owned by Peak.
The Australian company will not have to provide any additional equity for the development of the rare earth project, according to the statement, and the remaining capital costs will be funded via a Shenghe arranged debt facility. The final investment decision is scheduled to be made by the end of the year.
According to Peak, Ngualla is one of the largest and highest quality deposits of neodymium and praseodymium, important raw materials for electromobility and wind power, among other things. Huang Ping, Deputy Executive Chairman of Shenghe, also speaks of the “premier undeveloped rare earth project in the world”.
Around the World: Shenghe Involved in Numerous Rare Earth Projects
Shenghe already holds a 19.9 percent stake in Peak and has secured the entire rare earth concentrate from Ngualla for seven years, plus at least 50 percent of the intermediate and end products from Peak Rare Earths. The Chinese group, which has already acquired other rare earth projects in Tanzania, is an important player in the world of rare earths, including through its stake in MP Materials, the operator of the only US rare earth mine to date, Mountain Pass Mine. Headlines were made at the end of last year by the planned sale of the entire raw material of Canada’s only rare earth mine to Shenghe – the deal was apparently recently blocked by the Canadian government in order to limit China’s influence on the domestic mining industry.
Photo: iStock/naruedom