US Exim backs Tanbreez mining
US Exim has offered a loan of up to US$120m to Critical Metals Corp to fund the Tanbreez rare earth metals mine in Greenland.
The loan is offered on a 15-year tenor with the project qualifying for Exim’s Supply Chain Resiliency initiative, aimed at supporting companies that compete with China.
In June last year Critical Metals Corp, which is based in Australia but is listed in New York following a 2024 IPO, said it had signed a binding agreement to acquire Tanbreez from Rimbal, a company controlled by geologist Gregory Barnes.
The transaction was valued at US$211m.
Critical Metals Corp took a 42% stake with the option to take that to 92.5%, subject to a US$10m investment in exploration expenses. Acquisition of the additional shares will take place through the issuance of US$116m of shares in Critical Metals Corp to Rimbal.
In March the Tanbreez project had a net present value of US$3bn following a preliminary economic assessment based on an initial estimate of 44.97m tonnes of rare earth materials.
Critical Metals Corp estimated the Tanbreez Project will require US$290m of capital expenditure to bring it to commercial production with an initial output capacity of 85,000 tonnes of rare earth material per year.
CEO and chair Tony Sage said the Exim loan is “a tremendous milestone for Critical Metals Corp which highlights to the rare earths supply chain, Western governments and investors that Tanbreez is a world-class asset that will provide mission-critical rare earth metals to counter China’s continued dominance”.
The move follows increased attention on the strategic value of Greenland including a number of comments from US president Donal Trump suggesting the US could annex the autonomous Danish territory.
Earlier this month, Denmark stepped up its investment in Greenland mining assets with the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark making an £11.3m investment in Amaroq Minerals in the company’s US$45m equity raise, leaving the state as one of the top three shareholders (see separate story).
