CAPITAL MARKETS

ASM makes ASX debut

Alkane spin-off lists with progress on pilot plant

Staff reporter
 A recently produced 7.6kg ingot of neodymium metal

A recently produced 7.6kg ingot of neodymium metal

The stock opened at A$1.25 and rose as high as $1.55, before closing at $1.40.

ASM has just over 119 million shares on issue, which are held by Alkane shareholders via an in-specie distribution of one share for every five held.

There was no capital raising associated with the listing, but ASM has listed with A$20 million cash and no debt.

Former Superior Lake Resources CEO David Woodall appointed as managing director in February.

Alkane directors Ian Gandel, Nic Earner and Ian Chalmers are on the ASM board, along with Robert Bosch Australia president Gavin Smith.

The team also includes Steve Messiter as chief operating officer, Alister Macdonald as general manager, marketing, and NSW GM Mike Sutherland.

ASM will hold the Dubbo project in New South Wales, which has a resource of 75.18 million tonnes at 1.89% zirconium, 0.04% hafnium, 0.44% niobium and 0.9% total rare earth oxides.

Dubbo has capital costs of A$1.3 billion, based on a 1Mt per annum base case operation.

Under that scenario, the project has an internal rate of return of 17.5% and net present value of $1.24 billion.

Alkane has also identified the potential for a 500,000 tonne per annum start-up project with capital costs of $808 million.

Dubbo is expected to have a mine life of more than 75 years and is fully permitted.

An optimisation of Dubbo to include flotation has the potential to lower capex and opex.

In March, the Australian government-owned Export Finance Australia (EFA) confirmed interest in financing Dubbo, as part of the initiatives under the Critical Minerals Facilitation Office.

ASM has also built a pilot plant facility in South Korea in joint venture with Zirconium Technology Corporation (ZironTech).

Today, ASM announced it has successfully completed the first production run of neodymium (Nd) metal in its commercial pilot plant.

The production of 7.6kg grading 99.8% Nd was produced at a higher purity than typically traded neodymium metal and used up to 50% less energy than current commercial production methods.

The electrorefining section of the plant is being commissioned, with high purity titanium metal to be produced next month.

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