RE: HUGE19 Oct 2023 11:57
This clears the path for the Company to work towards finalising an offtake and financing agreement with LB Group (002601:SHENZHEN; Market Cap: US$6.4 billion) further to the previously announced Memorandum of Understanding ("MoU") announced on 9 May 2023.
Greg Martyr, Executive Chairman, commented:
"We are delighted that the Secretary has ordered the reissuance of the IMLs enabling us to now fast-track the development of the Project. This follows almost a year of legal and lobbying efforts to enable us to get the Project back on track.
The Eastern Minerals Project will be a first-of-a-kind for Sri Lanka, comprising modern mining practices, in-country value addition, knowledge and skills transfer, regional infrastructure improvements, and substantial foreign exchange income for the country.
While the interference with the IMLs has cost us the best part of a year, we have in that time secured an offtake MoU with the world's number one manufacturer of high-performance titanium dioxide pigments to fund the Project into production and seen continued improvements in the prices of our main products. This will benefit all stakeholders.
We expect to be extremely busy in re-engaging with LB Group, accelerating the satisfaction of the conditions required to meet the numerous outstanding mining applications as well as the reissued IMLs, commencing work on the Environmental Impact Assessment for the southern part of the Project in EL199, securing port access at Oluvil, and building out the team. It will be a pleasant change to be working on these value adding initiatives rather than fighting against the injustice we suffered at the hands of a few over the last 12 months.
We look forward to working with the GSMB, which has been given clear instructions from the Secretary and is now under the purview of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, as well as the Board of Investment, which has an increased role in the appraisal of and recommendation for the approval of mineral licences following the recently announced procedural changes.
I would like to thank our team, particularly in Sri Lanka, for their unstinting efforts towards securing this outcome. This is a good decision for Capital Metals and for Sri Lanka."
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