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48.7M Euro Business Finland Grant for Pori Vanadium Plant

Neometals Ltd (ASX: NMT)

Neometals Ltd (ASX: NMT) (“Neometals” or “the Company”), is pleased to provide a copy of the Novana Oy (“Novana”) announcement of the approval of a grant of €48.7M (c. $86.8M AUD)1 by the Finnish government through Business Finland, to support the development of its Vanadium Recovery Project (“VRP1”), which is to be located in Pori, Finland. The grant is conditional on securing the balance of equity and debt financing required for VRP1.

Neometals holds an 86.1% interest in Recycling Industries Scandinavia AB (“RISAB”), which wholly owns Novana.

Neometals previously announced the results of the VRP1 feasibility study which confirmed the potential for V2O5 production at lowest-quartile operating costs, with a low-to-negative carbon footprint2 .

Novana is currently conducting a project financing selection process, seeking approximately €400M with leading Nordic bank Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (“SEB”). and EIT RawMaterials GmbH managing the equity package. The conditional grant significantly reduces the equity financing component required for the project financing.

Novana holds the exclusive licence to Neometals’ wholly owned VRP Technology in the Nordic region3 , a nonexclusive licence for areas outside the Nordics and is required to pay a 2.5% gross revenue royalty to Neometals from all products and sales generated from its use. Novana holds a long-term lease over the proposed VRP1 plant site, has secured the project’s environmental permit4 and entered a binding offtake agreement for 100% of VRP1’s V2O5 products with Glencore International AG5 . Neometals does not intend to provide further material funding to RISAB/Novana to develop VRP1 and expects to dilute its current holding to a minority equity position.

Neometals Managing Director, Chris Reed, said: “We would like to congratulate the Novana team and thank Business Finland and the Finnish government for their ongoing support of the project. Vanadium is on the critical minerals list in the EU, USA and Australia and this grant plays a significant role in reducing the equity required to fund the project which aims to produce vanadium with a zero-carbon footprint in the Nordics from an industrial side stream.” 

To read the full announcement, please click here

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About Neometals

Neometals’ purpose is to deliver stakeholder value by enabling the sustainable production of critical and valuable materials essential for a cleaner future. The Company is commercialising a portfolio of low-cost sustainable processing solutions for critical materials in parallel with the exploration and development of mining operations at its Barrambie Gold Project.

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