Neometals' RISAB progresses debt financing discussions with EIB

(Alliance News) - Neometals Ltd on Friday said that its joint venture company, Recycling Industries Scandinavia AB, has made material progress in debt financing discussions with the European Investment Bank.

Neometals is a London-based sustainable battery materials producer. It has a 50% stake in RISAB, which is evaluating the feasibility of constructing a facility to process and recover high-grade vanadium oxide from vanadium-bearing steel making by-product generated by SSAB EMEA AB and SSAB Europe Oy in Scandinavia.

Its shares were trading 9.5% lower at 33.02 pence each in London on Friday morning.

RISAB's ongoing debt financing dialogue with the EIB has successfully passed the proposal for funding consideration stage and has now entered into a formal appraisal stage of diligence by the bank.

Neometals said that RISAB is currently engaged in discussions with several debt providers and will make a final decision on the debt funding package and participating lenders in due course.

"We first submitted our proposal to the EIB in October 2022, its acceptance validates our circular economy ambition to produce critical raw materials in Europe. Typically, cornerstone funding from the EIB for environmentally sustainable opportunities in the battery supply chain is on very attractive terms," said Neometals Managing Director Chris Reed.

"There is keen interest from a number of debt providers for the funding of the Vanadium Recovery Project. We watch with interest the imminent release of the EU Critical Raw Materials Act today in Europe, particularly the expected financial support for strategic projects that produce critical raw materials, like vanadium, where the EU is 100% dependent on imports."

By Holly Beveridge, Alliance News reporter

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