Arafura Rare Earths (ASX:ARU) is looking to involve the German Raw Materials Fund (GRMF) with its Nolans Project in the Northern Territory of Australia as it enters an appraisal phase for equity investment.
The company is seeking up to €100 million ($180.38 million) to accommodate the additional 500 tonnes per annum (tpa) of neodymium-praseodymium to meet supply demands from the German market.
This is a major boost to the original investment of €50 million.
Arafura was forwarded to the Interministerial Committee (IMC) for raw materials projects after first applying for the grant in October 2024.
The project will be inspected by an independent expert to create an economic viability and risk justifiability assessment. At the same time, state-owned development bank KfW will review key features including offtake, governance, environmental and social management, and financing.
Arafura has already received debt support from the IMC, with conditional approval allocating up to US$115 million in united loan guarantees from privately held Allianz Trade, formerly known as Euler Hermes.
The German Government first announced the deployment of €1 billion into the fund in September 2024, encouraging companies to participate in Germany’s supply of critical raw minerals by strengthening the supply chain and the overall economy.
Located 135km north of Alice Springs, the Nolans Project intends to supply a large portion of the growing demand for neodymium-praseodymium from its mine, process plant and other infrastructure yet to be constructed.
Trading Economics reports a 12.17% value increase of neodymium over this year to date, currently priced at ¥557,500 per tonne, driven by the global push for clean energy technologies.
Nolans Bore deposit contains a JORC-compliant resource of 56 million tonnes at an average grade of 2.6% total rare earth oxides and 11% phosphate to an extent of 215m below surface.
Arafura Rare Earths is an Australian explorer focused on redefining rare earths processing to aid the global energy transition.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: Arafura Rare Earths
