Mineral group plans £20m float

08/02/2010 Robert Tyerman

Aussie-listed Greenland Minerals & Energy wants to raise £20m and float on AIM

Aussie-listed Greenland Minerals and Energy is planning a flotation on the London Stock Exchange to raise £20 million for a £1.4 billion world-class rare earth and uranium project at Kvanefjeld in Greenland. An independent pre-feasibility study has suggested that the project could run for 23 years with capital expenditure of $2.3 billion (£1.4 billion), generating an operating surplus of $600 million and paying back the initial outlay in five years.

Greenland Minerals, valued Down Under at almost £70 million at the equivalent of 30p, owns 61 per cent of the Kvanefjeld licence, with options to take that to 90 or 100 per cent, says managing director Rod McIllree. Having hired Evolution Securities to advise on the London issue and considering adding J.P. Morgan or another group to the team, the company would spend the money on a definitive feasibility study.

With Kvanefjeld containing an estimated 4.9 million tonnes of rare earth oxides (used in high-tech and environmental applications, including flat display panels, hybrid cars and wind turbines) and 120,000 tonnes of uranium oxide, U3O8, the pre-feasibility study envisages annual production of 43,729 tonnes of rare earth oxide and 3,895 tonnes of U3O8. McIllree insists that ‘the uranium will pay for everything’, but he sees rare earths as the major profit generator.

Describing rare earth carbonates, now trading at around US$13 (810p) a kilogram, as ‘the new market darling’, McIllree expects a favourable political reaction. Greenland Minerals has made former Greenland prime minister Lars Emil Johansen chairman of its local subsidiary and he contends the territory is anxious to cut unemployment as it seeks greater autonomy from Denmark.

This should be a float to watch.