An entity linked to China has had a win in the battle for control over a strategic rare earths project with the resignation of Northern Minerals’ executive chairman, Nick Curtis.
Singapore-registered Yuxiao Fund had been pushing to get rid of Mr Curtis at an extraordinary general meeting on June 6, and the company is facing a probe by the Foreign Investment Review Board.The campaign to dump Mr Curtis comes as the owner of the fund, Chinese businessman Wu Tao, is seeking election to the board of ASX-listed Northern Minerals at its annual general meeting, also on June 6.
Mr Tao holds 9.98 per cent of Northern Minerals. He wanted to increase his holding to 19.9 per cent but was blocked in February last year by Treasurer Jim Chalmers, on FIRB advice. But in October last year, Mr Curtis asked FIRB to open another investigation to probe concerning purchases of Northern’s shares. The request was made around the time Yuxiao signed a co-operation agreement with China Northern and Shanghai-listed Shenghe Resources in front of a host of Communist Party officials last year.
‘‘Yuxaio proposed a resolution [at the extraordinary general meeting] . . . for the removal of Nick [Curtis],’’ said Adam Handley, who replaced Mr Curtis as executive chairman yesterday. Mr Handley said Mr Curtis’ resignation created an ‘‘alignment’’ between shareholders and the board. ‘‘We discussed those issues with Nick,’’ Mr Handley said. ‘‘He agreed to stand down as executive chair and to move to a strategic adviser role so that we move forward with a fully aligned board – which is intently focused on Browns Range – to remove what I would characterise as a ‘distraction’ from the board going forward.’’
Northern Minerals is developing the strategically important heavy rare earths Browns Range project in northeastern Western Australia, near the Northern Territory border. Mr Handley said the company was targeting a final investment decision for Browns Range in the March quarter of 2025. ‘‘That’s a relatively short time-frame as you can appreciate, so we were very keen to ensure that we had alignment with the general shareholder base and the board to move forward,’’ he said.
The deposit is one of the world’s largest known sites for dysprosium and terbium, essential ingredients in high-performance magnets, batteries and defence equipment. The mine will supply Australia’s first fully integrated rare earths refinery being built by Iluka Resources with a $1.25 billion loan from the federal government. The loan is part of a broader move by Australia, the United States and other Western nations to finance projects that help reduce dependence on China for rare earths processing.
Northern Minerals said last month it could not support Mr Wu’s election to the board amid Yuxaio’s FIRB referral. Mr Handley has been a nonexecutive director of Northern Minerals since December 2021. Shane Hartwig, the current finance director, will become managing director and chief executive. A spokesman for the federal Treasurer said: ‘‘As is longstanding practice, the government does not confirm or comment on FIRB investigations in respect to particular investments.’’ Northern Minerals shares dropped 5.26 per cent to 0.04¢.
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Ash here.
I am a very unhappy holder. There are large licks of money - grants, concessional loans and potentially price support - available to NTU to fund the development of Wolverine provided it becomes part of Western efforts to break China's monopoly on Dy and Tb.
The appointment of a China-aligned Chairman stands directly in the way of our commercial interest and Western efforts to orchestrate a better future for all.
Above, I refer to the players trying to engineer a pathway through this mess. These bodies wear big boots and can stomp on little participants like NTU shareholders as though they were ants, while gesturing at 'national security' to silence us. There is a genuine risk we could be seriously disadvantaged in any 'solution'.
NTU could be nationalised - at any price government chooses - just to dislodge the Chinese minority interest.
Or it could be flipped into ILU's hands. ILU is the natural owner of Wolverine and would welcome the asset - on attractive terms, thank you.
FID has now slipped further to 1Q2025.
What value can we attach to NTU with these gross uncertainties?
The Wolverine orebody is very high quality. The actions around it are not.
Ash
NTU Price at posting:
3.6¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)