Offtakers offer to finance Capital Metals
“…Our plan is to get into production with Capital Metals as quickly as we can…”
Ilmenite has been found in Moon rocks. Obviously commercial exploitation in space isn’t allowed, Jeff ‘Amazon’ Bezos aside, and there’s really no need if the mineral is a component in Capital Metals’ ‘Eastern Mineral Sands’ project in Sri Lanka. It is of course closer to home, as are the timelines to production after the approval of the EIA or Environmental Impact Assessment permit.
It’s a long-awaited approval hindered by Covid and the knock-on effect its had on local and central government decision making. What wasn’t put on hold were the pre-approval offtake conversations. The Covid delay granted the company more and more bargaining chips as the asset gained in value due to the increase in the prices of its components.
And then when the EIA approval was trumpeted by the RNS conch shells, those offtake conversations became more direct, more frequent and more urgent with chief executive Michael Frayne saying, “they [the offtakers] understand that they’re going to help finance what we do.”
As outlined in March’s TMSReach article Capital will soon be joining a relatively narrow pool of mineral sands producers. The asset is theirs, the EIA is approved, Frayne is confident about the granting of the mining licence and the newly appointed CFO James Mahoney is experienced in LSE Main Market, AIM and AQSE pre-IPO companies
Elevator pitch aside, Mahoney and Frayne appear to have several funding offers from the offtakers which is great news for investors who would loathe any options that dilute their current positions. The company started 2021 with the acquisition of the Eastern Minerals Project and the oversubscribed placing of £2 million. The Company have been presenting this week to new potential investors. Have any of these meetings progressed to actual investment? We shall see.
Listen to Michael talk to Sarah Lowther about Covid, government processes and next steps.
Watch Michael talk to Proactive’s Andrew Scott at the beginning of 2021 to get a deeper insight into how far the company has come, and whether it has fulfilled the ambitions discussed.
Read the TMS Reach article on #CMET
Follow the company on Twitter – @MetalsCapital
Read the 2021 corporate presentation
The author was remunerated but does not hold shares in the company
