The Australian based mining company MRG Metals announced on Wednesday that it has applied for three exploration licences for Rare Earth Elements and Uranium deposits about 150 kilometres west of the central Mozambican coastal city of Quelimane.
In its announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange, MRG Metals explained that the proposed project will explore a number of hard-rock and sedimentary targets following positive signs from radiometric spectrometer data collected from an airborne geophysical survey. Shares in MRG Metals on the Australian Securities Exchange jumped by 13 per cent following the announcement.
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The applications for exploration licences are currently being assessed by the Mozambican authorities and the company stated that it is ready to commence field exploration as soon as the applications are granted.
Amongst the minerals that the company hopes to find in economically viable quantities is Monazite which could contain Rare Earth Elements such as Thorium.
According to the company’s chairperson, Andrew Van Der Zwan “the successful submission of the exploration licence applications that cover Rare Earths and Uranium is a very important step for MRG Metals in our forward-looking strategy”. He noted that the new licences will diversify the company’s portfolio and give it access to the growing Rare Earth and Uranium markets.
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He pointed out that “Mozambique as an investment destination is a fantastic country” and added that the company has an excellent local team. The company is also developing a heavy mineral sands project in the southern Mozambican province of Gaza.
Rare Earth Elements [REE]are a group of 17 metals, described as “light” or “heavy” depending on their position in the periodic table of elements. They have many high technology applications in, for example, aerospace components, lasers, superconductors, and magnets.
