Mining lease granted

NT govt has come good...

Sorry about the formatting..

TCG

ASX ANNOUNCEMENT NOLANS MINERAL LEASES GRANTED BY NORTHERN TERRITORY GOVERNMENT 22 July 2020 Arafura Resources Limited | ABN: 22 080 933 455 Level 6, 432 Murray St, Perth WA 6000 PO Box 5773, St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6831 T: +61 8 6370 2800 | W: www.arultd.com | E: [email protected] • Secures the Nolans Bore mineral resource for initial 25 years • Development tenure locked in for mining and all supporting project infrastructure • Tenure security facilitates advanced discussions with debt arrangers and finance partners Arafura Resources Limited (ASX:ARU) (“Arafura” or the “Company” is pleased to announce that the Mineral Leases (ML) for the Company’s 100 per cent-owned Nolans Neodymium-Praseodymium (NdPr) Project in the Northern Territory have been granted by the Northern Territory Government. The MLs, which will host the Nolans mine, process plant, waste storage facilities and accommodation village, were granted to Arafura’s wholly owned subsidiary Arafura Rare Earths Pty Ltd (ARE) for an initial term of 25 years by the Northern Territory Minister for Primary Industry and Resources, Paul Kirby. “This significant milestone brings us one step closer to a final investment decision at a time when critical minerals, such as rare earths, are in growing demand around the world,” said Arafura’s Managing Director, Gavin Lockyer. The grant follows the signing of the project’s Native Title Agreement (NTA) last month by Anmatyerr native title holders who, in so doing, gave their consent to the grant of all the project’s MLs (refer to ASX announcement 26 June 2020) allowing for multiple renewals beyond the initial grant term. The grant process confers to ARE the exclusive right to mine and to occupy the MLs to construct and operate the Nolans Project. “The Native Title Agreement and granting of the MLs will provide investors with a major confidence boost that the project is ready to proceed subject to finance,” Mr Lockyer said. The Company is currently in the advanced stages of preparing a Mining Management Plan (MMP) for authorisation by the Northern Territory Department of Primary Industry and Resources (DPIR). This will allow site-based activities to progress. The project’s cornerstone development tenure is shown on the attached map. It comprises ML 26659 (Nolans Bore mineral resource, open pit mine, waste rock dumps), ML 30702 (accommodation village), ML 30703 (tailings, gypsum and water leach residue storage facilities) and ML 30704 (process plant area, which includes the beneficiation, phosphate extraction, rare earth extraction, rare earth processing and rare earth separation facilities, and supporting infrastructure). Applications for ancillary MLs by ARE encompassing individual bore fields (MLs 32411-32415) and an ephemeral drainage diversion channel (ML 32416) immediately west of the Nolans mine site ML are being processed by DPIR.