Ironveld begins strategic review over future of its assets

High-purity iron, vanadium and titanium project owner Ironveld has engaged finnCap to lead a review of strategic alternatives for its mining assets, it announced on Tuesday.

The AIM-traded firm holds unfettered rights to 56.4 million tonnes of magnetite ore, which the JORC-compliant mineral resources demonstrated held 1.4 billion pounds of vanadium - the equivalent to four times annual global demand - as well as 27 million tons of high-purity iron in situ and 8.3 million tonnes of titanium.

It said the project ore body was near surface, enabling simple, open cast mining.

The current resource did not include mineralisation on the Luge Farm prospecting right, which was near to the current JORC resource and which was yet to be defined, but was believed to have “the same” geology.

Ironveld said it believed that, given the potential size of the resources, a sale of its mining rights could be in the best interest in the development of the project, and the highest value to shareholders.

The company said it had been in discussions with a number of funding providers for the development of the project.

As part of those funding discussions, it had received expressions of interest in acquiring certain of its underlying assets.

In light of that , the board said it had now determined to instigate the strategic review, which could result in the sale of the entirety of the mining rights over the project.

Separately, negotiations with potential development partners which had completed due diligence were said to be continuing, with the board saying they could lead to offers of financing that would facilitate the start of smelting operations by Ironveld.

The board said it would provide further updates to the market in due course.

“We believe that we have one of the premier in situ high-purity iron, vanadium and titanium deposits in the world and we believe that the potential of the project is best recognised by third parties,” said Ironveld chairman Giles Clarke.

“We have therefore initiated the strategic review to ascertain how our assets can best deliver value to our shareholders.

“We thank shareholders for their continued support of Ironveld and we look forward to providing further updates on the potential sale of our mining rights as appropriate.”