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- Tungsten specialist Almonty Industries (AII) draws down another US$9.82 million (A$14.6 million) from a major finance facility with Germany-based KfW IPEX-Bank
- This third drawdown takes the total amount drawn under the finance facility to US$26.7 million of a total US$75.1 million
- Almonty is using the funds to restart the historic Sandong mine in South Korea, which — once operational — will be the world’s largest tungsten mine outside of China
- Chairman, President and CEO Lewis Black says on top of the Sandong restart, Almonty and its partners are also looking at getting a foot in the door of the semiconductor industry
- Shares in Almonty Industries last traded at 79 cents on November 4
Tungsten specialist Almonty Industries (AII) has drawn down another US$9.82 million (A$14.6 million) from a major finance facility with Germany-based KfW IPEX-Bank.
This third drawdown takes the total amount drawn under the finance facility to US$26.7 million of a total US$75.1 million.
Almonty is using the funds to restart the historic Sandong mine in South Korea, which — once operational — will be the world’s largest tungsten mine outside of China.
Company Chairman, President and CEO Lewis Black said on top of the Sandong restart and construction work, Almonty and its partners were also looking at getting a foot in the door of the semiconductor industry.
“In addition to a construction update, the parties further investigated the potential of Almonty to directly participate in the battery anode and cathode and semiconductor manufacturing industry via the potential development of a 3000-tonne-per-annum vertical nano tungsten oxide plant in South Korea,” Mr Black said.
“Almonty has already signed a letter of interest with KfW IPEX-Bank in January 2022 to potentially fund up to US$50 million of this downstream processing opportunity, which would see Almonty participate in the full supply chain from mine to battery products.”
He also flagged a rising tungsten price, which has increased roughly 50 per cent over the past year to around US$350 per metric tonne unit (MTU).
“This strong price, coupled with our unprecedented floor price guarantee in our contract with our offtake partner, Plansee GTP, of US$235/MTU (with no upside cap), has the potential to generate truly spectacular returns for our shareholders once commissioning has commenced in the second half of 2023.”
Almonty said it planned to have the Sandong mine up and running well before its loan facility with KfW matured and became repayable.
Shares in Almonty Industries last traded at 79 cents on November 4.
