Alliance Mineral, JV partner announce 2 sales deals for Australia mine

CATALIST-LISTED miner Alliance Mineral Assets and its joint-venture partner Tawana Resources have found buyers for the tantalum concentrate from the Bald Hill mine in Australia, they said in a joint statement on Thursday.

According to the announcement, the partners have agreed to sell 20 to 30 dry metric tonnes of high-grade tantalum concentrate to Germany-based HC Starck Tantalum and Niobium, and have been engaged for the long-term off-take of the high-grade tantalum concentrate production from Bald Hill.

Alliance Mineral and Tawana have also agreed to sell some 400 wet metric tonnes of low-grade tantalum concentrate to Global Advanced Metals Greenbushes, in an one-off sales contract, the announcement added.

Alliance Mineral and Tawana said that the Bald Hill mine has produced about 28.4 tonnes of tantalum concentrate between April and September 2018.

"Tantalum pricing has been relatively strong in 2018 and we are encouraged by the level of interest in high-quality tantalum concentrates with low levels of deleterious elements," said Tawana managing director Mark Calderwood in the joint statement.

He added that price details have been kept confidential at the buyers' request, but added that premium concentrates from Bald Hill, which he said have a tantalum concentration of at least 30 per cent, "command prices well in excess of those previously budgeted".

Alliance Mineral ended up 1.5 Singapore cents or 6.67 per cent at S$0.24 before the announcement.