And this below Ausheds , you STILL feel with all this effort and...

And this below
Ausheds , you STILL feel with all this effort and support from around the world and having this HUGE (all boxes ticked ) ready to go deposit , that it is really going to sit idle ?
If so you have ROCKS in your head .


MACROECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS
Global Markets and Supply Chain Security
The European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA) released its first action plan to secure access to Rare Earth
Elements for European industry, tellingly, rare earths being prioritised as the key topic for the first of the two
reports focussing on critical materials to establish a carbon-neutral future for Europe. The key recommendation
in the report is the need to encourage strategic partnerships with resource-rich countries, for both raw
materials and recycling, as Europe begins to develop their processing capabilities.
With the increasing production of electric vehicles, compared to traditional internal combustion engine
vehicles, there is a significant reduction in moving parts leading to fewer components and shrinking production
lines. In order to protect domestic jobs, many OEMs are preserving employment by bringing as much
production of components inhouse including battery cell production and traction motor components.
Australia and India resumed free trade talks in earnest and released the Australia-India Critical Minerals
Partnership Potential report highlighting ways Australian companies and institutions can partner with India to
supply critical minerals and attract investments for Australian mining and mineral processing projects. Such
initiative will support the critical raw material needs for India’s “Make In India” initiative, which includes the
30 September 2021 | ASX Announcement
QUARTERLY ACTIVITIES REPORT AND APPENDIX 5B
www.arultd.com Page 9 of 20
Clean Tech Incentive to attract investment for electric vehicle manufacturing and creating another geographic
consumption market for NdPr products.
Japan has elected former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida as the new leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic
Party, who is focused on strengthening coalitions such as the Quad and the US-Japan alliance. With increasing
supply concerns Japan has begun to secure their rare earth's industry with a proposed amendment to existing
foreign exchange and trade legislation that would have any industry linked to critical rare metals (including
rare earths) as being classified as a core industry.
In August, the US Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill was agreed which included US$15 billion for electric vehicle and
infrastructure development and US$73 billion to update the existing power infrastructure for
the expanding renewable energy and increased electric vehicle uptake. In the same month, Biden signed an
Executive Order setting a goal that 50% of all new vehicles sold in the US are to be zero-emission by 2030. To
further secure the rare earth magnet supply chain, a bipartisan bill was introduced, the “Rare Earth Magnet
Manufacturing Production Tax Credit Act” that, if enacted, would create a new tax credit of up to US$20/kg of
rare earth magnets produced in the US with rare earth material from an allied nation, increasing to US$30/kg
if all rare earth material used is produced or recycled domestically.
Further to Australia’s collaboration with the United States within the Quad partnership, alliances were
cemented with the United States, along with the United Kingdom, through the AUSUK trilateral security
partnership through which the three nations would closely collaborate to share and better utilise their
respective technologies and capabilities. This alliance is viewed as the most significant security pact between
the nations since World War II and will lead to multi-generational, extremely close collaboration in other areas,
such as access to Australia’s critical resources, especially rare earths and battery minerals.
South Korea passed a bill aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050 and unveiled accelerated targets for carbon
reduction supported with $10.3 billion of investment in 2022 for transport electrification with incentives for
zero-emission vehicles and charging infrastructure development across the nation. Government financial
support will be available to reduce coal-powered power plants and traditional internal combustion
engine vehicles and close cooperation with industry to reduce electric vehicle prices by 2025. South Korea also
announced that the country’s stockpiles of critical metals and rare earths to be increased from current
56.8 days' worth of consumption to 100 days, with the expansion of existing facilities and development
of new ones being necessary.
Subsequent to the end of the quarter, General Electric and General Motors announced a MOU which would
include the development of a rare earth materials supply chain for North-American and European-based
magnet manufacturing; the shift towards strategic partnerships and collaboration to secure their own supply
chains is likely to become a more common occurrence.
The global semiconductor shortage facing automotive OEMs has heightened the awareness on the
vulnerability of their supply chains with impacted companies announcing prolonged production cuts
and inevitable loss of market share. Many OEM’s have prioritised supply chain security towards high value
components, such as electric vehicle battery cells, however the availability of the comparatively lower cost and
higher utility components have shown to also bear significant impact on finished product delivery. The supply
of NdFeB magnets can be seen in the same light, a product with relatively low value in the total cost of the car
yet critical in its application, NdFeB magnet users not aligned with the “Made in China 2025” EV strategy are
exposed to future supply risks unless measures are taken to strategically secure this critical material.
OFFTAKE AND PROJECT FUNDING
30 September 2021 | ASX Announcement
QUARTERLY ACTIVITIES REPORT AND APPENDIX 5B
www.arultd.com Page 10 of 20
Offtake
Within the current geopolitical climate, and the return from summer holidays in the Northern hemisphere has
coincided with a significant increased interest in offtake discussions.
In recent months offtake discussions with European parties have continued to progress, including a few
significant groups not originally considered interested, who are now engaged with Arafura with a clear priority
to secure their permanent magnet supply chains. This, coupled with additional strategic interest from parties
in other jurisdictions, has increased the pipeline of potential offtake partners now advancing discussions with
Arafura. More than ten parties are in discussion with Arafura for greater than 260% of the 4,440 tpa NdPr oxide
planned production with a view to secure 85% as binding offtake. Arafura has advanced commercial offtake
discussions with several key parties required to meet the binding offtake volume and with coordinated strategic
interest and upward revision of production plans, it is envisioned Arafura NdPr supply will be shared with fewer
strategic offtake parties.
Automotive OEMs are restructuring and realigning plants towards inhouse EV traction motor manufacturing
and how to de-risk their NdFeB magnet value chain and upstream supply risk. There is a growing consciousness
that there are very few strategically advanced NdPr projects globally that can support a risk-managed solution
at significant scale to address security of supply, geo-political risk, ESG, traceability and provenance. Arafura’s
ESG initiatives, including a single site operation are seen very favourably.
Most encouraging is the number of potential offtake parties engaging Arafura with a collaborative approach
to secure their magnet supply chains, with consortium and investment interest in the value chain all being
considered.
Triangular discussions are advancing between a European end user and their magnet suppliers to assess how
Arafura’s NdPr metal can be processed to achieve a fully traceable final magnet product. NdPr metal samples
from our tolling partner were supplied to the magnet suppliers for the purposes of pre-qualification of the
metal sample and