TIDMIRON
RNS Number : 1650Z
Ironveld PLC
12 May 2023
Ironveld Plc
Operations Update
Ironveld plc ("Ironveld" or the "Company"), the AIM quoted
mining development company, is pleased to provide an update on
recent activities.
Ironveld Smelting- Rustenburg
Refurbishment work at the Rustenburg smelter complex is now
approaching full completion and first shipments of the smelter's
three speciality metals, high purity iron, titanium slag and
vanadium slag, remain in line to meet the Company's stated target
of first sales in Q2 2023.
The Company has undertaken extensive scheduled repairs to the
second furnace and the AOD (or "Convertor"), as well as to the
Granulator. Following discussions with buyers of Ironveld's high
purity iron product, it has become clear that a granulated final
product, rather than a cast product, will command materially higher
selling prices. This led to an assessment of the existing
Granulator plant at the smelter and a project to bring this back
into production was initiated, despite not being in the initial
plan, including significant repairs and the sourcing of certain
specialist electrical items and control software.
Following the amended work programme to bring the Granulator
into production it is expected that the smelter will operate with
two furnaces until July 2023, when the third furnace will then also
be brought online, but with no material delay in the plan to reach
full production capacity by Q3 2023.
Ironveld Smelting - Limpopo
In recent weeks Ironveld Smelting has signed a long term,
30-year lease, with a right to renew, with the Government of South
Africa, represented by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform
and Rural Development, for land covering approximately 155 hectares
on the Altona licence. In the short term this will be the location
for ore processing activities, and in the long term it will be the
location for larger smelting operations adjacent to the mine.
Already located on the land are extensive buildings from a former
police training college, which Ironveld will convert for its own
use. The first upgraded buildings will house a clinic,
accommodation, and office space.
BurnStar Hydrogen Project
On 3 April 2023, the Company announced that its subsidiary,
Ironveld Energy (Pty) Limited, had signed a Letter of Intent with
BurnStar Technologies (Pty) Limited ("BurnStar"), to proceed
towards a binding Legal Agreement (the "Agreement") under which
BurnStar will implement its patent-pending 'Guilt-Free Hydrogen'
(TM) technology, to process Liquefied Natural Gas ("LNG") on site
at Ironveld's Rustenburg smelter.
The final legal Agreement is now signed by all parties and
BurnStar will now proceed to install, at its own cost, a plant at
Ironveld's Rustenburg smelter capable of producing hydrogen from
LNG at the rate of five kilograms per hour. It is envisaged that
the BurnStar hydrogen plant will be installed and fully operational
at the end of 2023.
Once the BurnStar plant is established at the Rustenburg
smelter, and is producing hydrogen, Ironveld intends to evaluate
its use as the reducing agent in its smelting process. The hydrogen
will be supplied by BurnStar at costs at or below current market
rates. If successfully applied to Ironveld's production, this will
enable the Company to significantly reduce its carbon consumption
over and above the benefits of the solar-hybrid power plant, due to
be commissioned later this year.
BurnStar is backed by specialist South African venture capital
and incubator fund, Savant.
Further information on BurnStar and Savant is available at
www.burnstar.co.za and www.savant.co.za
Ironveld Mining
Mining activities have continued as planned. Mined ore is
screened and crushed by subsidiary company, IPace, using on site
equipment before transportation to the smelter complex at
Rustenburg.
Ironveld Mining has also recently agreed a long term, 30-year
lease, with a right to renew, with the Government of South Africa,
represented by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural
Development, for land covering approximately 312 hectares on the
Altona licence, for use of the land covered by the Mining
Right.
On 27 January 2023, Ironveld announced the formation of the
IPace JV, with the intention of selling DMS grade magnetite ore
directly from the mine. Customer enquiries have been very
encouraging and first product sales are on track for mid-2023 as
planned.
Martin Eales, Chief Executive Officer of Ironveld, commented:
"We are delighted with progress at both the Limpopo mine site and
the Rustenburg smelter. As we prioritised the Granulator
refurbishment, the third furnace will now be online a couple of
months behind original estimates, but we will soon be producing a
much higher value product. A granulated product means that the
material size will be reduced, enabling end users to utilise it
more efficiently. We are also very pleased to have signed land
leases adjacent to the mine for future development of a larger
capacity smelter as part of our longer-term growth plan."
For further information, please contact:
Ironveld plc c/o BlytheRay
Martin Eales, Chief Executive Officer 020 7138 3204
finnCap (Nomad and Broker)
Christopher Raggett
Charlie Beeson 020 7220 0500
Turner Pope (Joint Broker)
Andy Thacker
James Pope 020 3657 0050
BlytheRay
Megan Ray
Tim Blythe 020 7138 3204
NOTES TO EDITORS
Ironveld (IRON.LN) is the owner of Mining Rights over
approximately 28 kilometres of outcropping Bushveld magnetite with
a SAMREC compliant ore resource of some 56 million tons of ore
grading 1,12% V2O5, 68,6% Fe2O3 and 14,7% TiO2.
In 2022 Ironveld agreed to acquire and refurbish a smelter
facility in Rustenburg, South Africa, in which it can process its
magnetite ore into the marketable products of high purity iron,
titanium slag and vanadium slag. This transaction became
unconditional in March 2023.
Ironveld is an AIM traded company. For further information on
Ironveld please refer to www.ironveld.com .
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it
forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union
(Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR"), and is disclosed in accordance with
the company's obligations under Article 17 of MAR.
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