What Canada does in Namibia on rare earths for batteries
Canada's project is part of a more general boom in rare earth exploration in Africa, focused on researching neodymium and praseodymium, key components of batteries. Giuseppe Gagliano's analysis
Canadian Battery Road Capital, an investment fund listed on the TSX Venture Exchange of the Toronto Stock Exchange, is about to take control of its first mineral resource: the Eureka rare earth project in Namibia. The general meeting of shareholders which is expected to approve the operation, which will cost the group $ 2 million, has been set for October 14th. The acquisition could be finalized in late October according to African Intelligence.
Located near the Walvis Bay port hub, the Eureka site has been the subject of exploration since 2018 by E-Tech Namibia, which is investigating the site's neodymium and praseodymium potential. Battery Road has already allocated 5 million dollars, raised in the year 2021, to be invested in the development of Eureka.
The enthusiasm for the Eureka project is part of a more general boom in rare earth exploration in Africa – particularly focused on researching neodymium and praseodymium, key components of electric vehicle batteries and wind turbine magnets. This responds to a growing demand from Western industrialists for rare earths from outside China's grids.
E-Tech Namibia is led by Elbert Loois, a commodity supply chain expert who was CEO of DMT-IMC, the leading mining consultancy in Germany. As the leader in raw materials in Germany, Loois also advises industry giants of the Resource Alliance – in particular BMW, ThyssenKrupp, BASF, Bosch, Daimler and Volkswagen – in their sourcing strategies. He has also worked with the European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA) since its creation in 2020 and finally advised the management of the Rare Earth Industry Association (REIA).
If Battery Road has a pristine history in Namibia, its leaders are not new. Among the directors of the holding are Canadian financier James Megann, president of Battery Road, as well as Daniel Whittaker (founder of GoGold Resources and Ucore Rare Metals), Carl Sheppard and Christopher Drysdale.
The four men also sit on the board of directors of Canada's Antler Gold, which mainly develops gold projects in Namibia but just acquired a rare earth exploration permit in Zambia in August.
Another key figure in Battery Road's arrival in Namibia is Rob Randall, who holds the CFO positions of E-Tech Namibia, Antler Gold and Canadian investment firm Torrent Capital, of which James Megann is also a director. Previously, Randall was CFO of Ethiopian Resources, a company that owned the gold mines of Youga (Burkina Faso) and Agbaou (Cote d'Ivoire) before being fully acquired by Endeavor Mining in 2010.
Namibia's largest rare earth project, Lofdal, was also developed by a Canadian, Namibia Critical Metals (NCM, formerly Namibia Rare Earths). This company was managed from 2010 to May 2021 by Gerald McConnell, first as CEO and then as chairman, who had previously been CEO of Etrusche Resources from 1990 to 2010.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/canada-terre-rare-africa-namibia/ on Sat, 25 Sep 2021 07:06:16 +0000.