Central Asia Metals (LON: CAML) announced on Monday a conditional investment of £3 million ($3.8m) in Aberdeen Minerals to acquire a 28.7% equity holding in the company.
Central Asia Metals owns and operates the Kounrad SX-EW copper operation in central Kazakhstan and the Sasa zinc-lead mine in North Macedonia.
Aberdeen Minerals is a privately-owned junior raw battery materials explorer based in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It holds a 7,400-hectare land package, and CAML said it has already demonstrated the presence of a copper-nickel-cobalt deposit at its Arthrath project, originally discovered by Rio Tinto in 1968.
The British Geological Survey (BGS) last year produced a report identifying areas of the UK prospective for critical raw materials.
The national-scale assessment is one of the first steps in the UK government’s critical minerals strategy, which aims to make the nation more resilient to disruption in critical mineral supply chains.
The investment will fund further drilling, studies, and test work and CAML said in an emailed statement it believes that the UK in undergoing a mining revival, predominately driven by the green energy transition, making it an “exciting jurisdiction for exploration investment”.
The financing also comprises a conditional cornerstone investment of £3 million ($3.8m) at 8.5 pence per share, warrants to be granted to CAML to invest an additional £2 million ($2.5m) at 11 pence per share, which, if exercised, would take CAML ownership to 37.8%.
“We are delighted to have secured a major, cornerstone investment from CAML, a UK company which has a track record in successful mineral production and delivering benefits for its host communities, employees, and shareholders,” Aberdeen Minerals CEO Fraser Gardiner said in a news release.
“Their backing is a solid endorsement of the technical merits of our projects and our team’s exploration proposals. We look forward to working closely with them and sharing in future exploration success.
“The funding announced today provides a strong financial platform to progress our mineral exploration and development work in partnership with Aberdeenshire landowners, and to pursue local economic growth directly linked to the raw material needs of an energy transition,” Gardiner added.
