The first half of 2022 reflects a loss of £237,000 from administrative costs, this corresponds to the company’s expenditure on overheads, operational and exploration costs, and legal and professional expenses primarily related to the proposed transaction to acquire a series of exploration assets in Morocco and a proposed move to the Standard List of the London Stock Exchange,” explains Charles Bray, executive chairman.
“Additional expenditure was incurred on the Musasa JV and HCK JV operations in Rwanda. Over the period, management maintained its protocols for cash management and refrained from receiving salaries.”
During the reporting period, management continued working towards the completion of the transaction announced on the 22 November 2021. The company signed a sale and purchase agreement to acquire 100% of the share capital of Aterian Resources, a 100% owned indirect subsidiary of Altus Strategies, through the issuance of new ordinary shares of £0.01 par value in the company, the grant of warrants to purchase new shares and the grant of certain mining royalties.
Subsequently Altus has merged with Elemental Royalties Corp. and the combined entity, Elemental Altus Royalties Corp, is listed on TSX-V in Canada and OTCQX in the US.
Aterian is advancing a portfolio of 15 copper and silver prospective exploration projects in the Kingdom of Morocco. Concurrent with the acquisition, the company will apply for admission to the Official List and to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market for listed securities and change its name to Aterian Plc.
“Upon the successful completion of the acquisition, which is conditional upon the company listing on the LSE, we will welcome EARC as a significant beneficial shareholder. This proposed transaction transforms the Company into a multi-jurisdiction, multi-commodity, critical and strategic metals exploration and development company and we are excited that EARC will become a key shareholder,” states Bray.
HCK JV – southern Rwanda
Reconnaissance prospecting and geochemical soil sampling have resulted in the discovery of multiple new pegmatite zones. Prior to commencing fieldwork, two occurrences or zones, referred to as HCK-1 and HCK-2, were known. We have now identified a further 16 zones of pegmatite, bringing the total to 18 locations on the project that will require further assessment and evaluation. The significance of these discoveries is that pegmatite dykes in Rwanda are the primary host rock for Tantalum-Niobium mineralisation.
HCK-1 exploration
The company is conducting a shallow exploration pitting programme along the strike of the HCK-1 pegmatite zone to determine the overall geometry of this occurrence. The pits are excavated along sections, spaced approximately 100 m apart, orientated perpendicular to the general strike trend of HCK-1, and separated roughly 50 m along the section lines.
Initial reconnaissance of HCK-1 had estimated the strike length to be c. 650 m. The current work indicates that the pegmatite zone continues for at least 1,500 m, with additional pitting expected to extend this further. Although additional infill work is required, the width of the zone in places is more than 100 m.
Environmental management plan
The company commissioned a local, Rwandan government registered, environmental consultancy to undertake an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) over the licence area. Although not a government requirement for an exploration project, the Company undertook the survey to outline the baseline conditions over the area, including the outcomes resulting from previous artisanal operations.
Musasa JV
Musasa operations
Based on the recommendation of our on-site processing consultants, Quiver Limited, several significant changes have been made to the plant. Material coarser than 1mm is now fed into the cone crusher on a continuous feed circuit to reduce the material to sub 1mm. The material flow circuit around the 16 shaking tables has been re-routed ensuring the product is recycled to maximise recovery.
Six additional slurry pumps were installed to ensure better material flow and, more importantly, the recycling of washed material to allow for multiple passes through the separation process and better overall recoveries.
Quiver is providing a plant manager, based on site to control and manage the daily operations and a metallurgical consultant to develop short and long-term process improvements and associated plant upgrade strategies to increase and optimise plant production, with additional material testing and analysis at approved laboratories.
“As of the end of the reporting period, the plant operation has been temporarily halted to allow for additional off-site metallurgical testing and the on-site evaluation of a new set of separation spirals recently imported from South Africa. We will continue to evaluate how to best implement changes proposed by our processing consultants to optimise the plant’s productive capability.”
Kassava exploration
“In March, we commenced surface exploration over the Kassava Prospect, one of the five currently identified areas of mineralisation known on the project. The Kassava Prospect is located only 300 m south of the wash plant and follows a southeast trending ridge. Shallow vertical pits are being manually excavated to define the margins of the pegmatite, with data indicating the Kassava pegmatite to be lens-shaped with a maximum horizontal width of 80 m, with pits covering a strike length of 250 m.”
The geological team has identified several positive geological indicators, such as very coarse-grained muscovite, in addition to sub-cropping pegmatite, over a lateral distance of c. 500 m to the east of Kassava, suggesting the zone may be quite extensive.
“The licence application to extend the area of interest at Musasa up to 400 hectares remains pending with the Government of Rwanda. We will be working closely with the Rwanda Mines and Petroleum Board to accelerate the grant of the licence. This application may entail a change in the working relationship with our partner, Kuaka Cooperative, to allow for faster review and possible amendment of the application.”
Metal trading
The company has been granted a licence to trade both locally and internationally in metals mined from the region. To fully activate this potentially valuable revenue stream opportunity, the company has initiated the application process to seek membership of the ITRI Tin Supply Chain Initiative (“ITSCI”).
ITSCI (the) is part of a traceability and due diligence program designed to address concerns over ‘conflict minerals’ such as tin, tantalum, and tungsten from the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjoining countries. Membership is a prerequisite for trading in Rwanda.
