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  Vital to use placement funds for construction, mining and operations for production at Nechalacho project

  Vital Metals has announced raising A$43m ($33.26m) to fund construction, mining and operations at its Nechalacho rare earths project in Canada.

  Production at Nechalacho project is expected to commence on schedule in second quarter of calendar year 2021.

  Located in the Northwest Territories of Canada, Nechalacho is a high grade, light rare earth (bastnaesite) project.

  Vital Metals managing director Geoff Atkins said: “The placement would be transformative for the Company and its register.

  “We were pleased to receive such strong support for this placement from several large North American institutional investors who have joined our register, as well as from existing shareholders locally and internationally.

  “This support validates our strategy to produce rare earths for a globally diversified supply chain. As demand for critical minerals including rare earths continues to grow, our Canadian based project is positioned to supply customers in North America, Europe and Asia.”

  In addition to starting mining operations at the Nechalacho project, the company will also use the placement funds for the construction of offsite extraction plant in Saskatoon, Canada.

  The company would support the processing of mined material, drilling programme to define a preliminary mine plan for its stage 2 production at the project.

  Also, Vital would review historical drilling information and conduct further drilling, bulk sampling and testing at Wigu Hill, along with supporting the general working capital.

  Atkins added: “This placement ensures Stage 1 operations at Nechalacho are fully funded. We are excited to complete this milestone to allow mining operations to commence as we transition to a rare earth producer next quarter.

  “We look forward to commencement of our first mining campaign for Stage 1 operations at the North T Zone this month, and expect this will provide cashflow for our larger scale, longer life operation at Tardiff, where we are currently drilling to define a preliminary mine plan as Stage 2 of the project.”

  Vital is an explorer and developer focused on rare earths, technology metals and gold projects, located across a range of jurisdictions in Canada, Africa and Germany.

• [Editor:Catherine Ren]