Trading Symbol
LSE: AYM
30 September
2021
Anglesey Mining
plc
(“Anglesey” or
“the Company”)
Chairman’s AGM
Statement – Outlook remains positive for metal prices
Anglesey Mining plc (LSE:AYM), the UK minerals exploration and
development company, is pleased to release the Chairman’s Statement
at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders held in London today, which highlights the drivers
behind the Company’s positive outlook for metals prices.
Highlights
- Strength in metal prices over the last 12-months has been
driven by electrification, decarbonisation and global commitments
to build new, or replace, critical infrastructure
- Metals and minerals are essential for addressing climate change
and are critical components for governments around the world to hit
their green economy targets
- The current environment provides a unique opportunity for the
Company’s Parys Mountain project, with work to commence shortly on
feasibility study activities including infill drilling the White
Rock Zone and completing geotechnical and metallurgical
testwork
- The results of these work programmes will flow into the updated
mine plan and permitting activities
Jo Battershill, the CEO &
Managing Director of Anglesey Mining, commented: “With
today’s AGM Statement, the Chairman of Anglesey Mining has
explained very clearly why the Parys Mountain and Grängesberg
assets will most definitely play a part in the supply of minerals
for adapting to a green economy.
We have recently hosted visits to
Parys Mountain with the Ynys Môn MP, Mrs Virginia Crosbie and a senior member of the
North Wales Minerals and Waste Planning Service to discuss and
promote our plans for the project and the broader community. We
continue to believe Parys Mountain is positioned very strongly and
has all the hallmarks of a highly cash generative mine development
with a long life.
Initial work programmes are now being
planned and will include infill drilling to convert inferred
resources within the White Rock
and Engine Zones into the higher confidence indicated category
together with geotechnical drilling to assist with mine
optimisation planning and provide bulk samples for confirmatory
metallurgical testwork. We are also targeting a start to the
environmental baseline studies as soon as possible.
As disclosed in the recently
published Annual Report, our current financial resources are
sufficient to undertake these important workstreams and the
proposed PEA for Grängesberg. As additional funding becomes
available these programmes will be accelerated. Options for
additional funding remain open and the Board of Anglesey will
pursue all relevant opportunities including strategic investors,
partners and consideration to moving the listing to AIM, which
could potentially enhance investor interest and provide increased
financing flexibility.
As previously stated, the Company
will maintain a continued focus on the sustainable development of
our resource projects with the use of appropriate environmentally
friendly solutions where possible.”
Anglesey Mining plc (“Anglesey”) is pleased to release
the Statement of Anglesey’s Chairman, John
Kearney, to Shareholders at the AGM held in London today.
Positive Metal Price Outlook
The strength of metal prices to date in 2021 is very
encouraging. Over the past year, base metal prices have
posted strong gains, driven by resilience in the global economy,
investment speculation, supply disruptions and inventory
depletion.
In 2021, continued fiscal and monetary policy support is
providing additional momentum to prices against a backdrop of
multi-year low exchange stocks. Because China accounts for more than half of global
base metal demand and a significant share of global metal supply,
economic developments in China
will continue to be a major factor in metal markets and prices over
the long term. Notwithstanding a mid-summer slowdown and negativity
surrounding property developer Evergrande, Chinese demand is
expected to remain strong in 2021.
The principal reason for our positive outlook for metal prices,
as discussed in our recent 2021 Annual Report, is the growing
recognition that metals and minerals are essential for addressing
climate change and adapting to a green economy. Metals are
essential for electrification: copper for power generation,
transmission and energy storage; nickel and lead for energy
storage; and zinc for extending the lifespan of products. The two
key metals for Parys Mountain are copper and zinc.
At current mid 2021 metal prices, copper production from a Parys
Mountain mine would represent a little over 50% of the net smelter
revenue under the expanded Case C of the 2021 PEA, while zinc and
lead would represent 28% and 12% respectively. The PEA indicates
production of 103,500 tonnes of copper over the project’s 12-year
mine life, equivalent to an average production of 8,500 tonnes of
copper per year.
The need for metals and minerals –
Minerals are essential for a green economy
It is expected that post-pandemic global stimulus plans and the
challenging targets of the Paris Agreement to achieve climate
neutrality by 2050 will provide long term demand and support for
critical and strategic minerals and thus for metal prices,
including in particular copper, and indeed lead and zinc.
Amid resurging demand and as the world recovers from the
pandemic, trillions of dollars being invested to rebuild
infrastructure as well as transitioning to a green economy, the
outlook for copper is extremely bullish. Governments around the
world are launching huge stimulus programmes focused on job
creation and environmental stability, leading to the potential for
a multi-decade commodity cycle ahead driven by decarbonisation of
the global economy and a shift to cleaner energy.
The International Energy Agency (IEA), in its May 2021 report, The Role of Critical Minerals
in Clean Energy Transitions, states that the rapid deployment
of clean energy technologies as part of energy transitions implies
a significant increase in demand for minerals. The IEA report
suggests that an energy system powered by clean energy technologies
differs profoundly from one fuelled by traditional hydrocarbon
resources. It concludes that solar photovoltaic plants, wind farms,
and battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) generally require more
minerals to build than their fossil fuel-based counterparts.
According to the IEA, a typical electric car requires six times
the mineral inputs of a conventional car and an onshore wind plant
requires nine times more mineral resources than a gas-fired
plant.
Internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) are the greatest
contributors to carbon emissions in the UK. As recognized by
the Committee on Climate Change, for transport to hit ‘net zero’,
the internal combustion engine needs to be eliminated from cars. To
switch the UK’s fleet of 31.5 million ICEVs to BEVs it would take
an estimated 2,362,500 tonnes of copper, plus other critical
minerals. In addition, the energy revolution towards
renewables, that is, wind, solar, wave, tidal, hydro, geothermal
and nuclear, together with the newly built infrastructure for
delivery, are highly reliant on mineral-based technologies.
A letter authored by Natural History Museum Head of Earth
Sciences, Prof. Richard Herrington,
delivered to the Committee on Climate Change, explains that to meet
UK electric car targets for 2050 the UK would require at least half
of the world’s copper production, as well as other minerals, and to
replace all UK-based vehicles today with electric vehicles would
take 2.36 million tonnes of copper, representing approximately half
of the world’s annual copper production.
The focus on the renewable energy transition has continued to
intensify since March 2020, with the
world's major economies — the U.S., China and Europe — establishing carbon-neutrality goals
through to 2060. As policymakers injected unprecedented amounts of
stimulus into the global economy toward recovery from the
COVID-19-induced downturn, some of this investment was directed
toward boosting the rollout of green energy technologies to reduce
global carbon emissions.
Based on S&P Global projections for the rollout of solar,
wind and EVs to 2025, together with analysis of metals intensities
in these use cases, S&P Global Market Intelligence forecasts
demand to grow by a CAGR of 15% for copper, 35% for lithium, 28%
for cobalt and 35% for nickel.
Copper is a major component of EVs; it is used in the anode
current collector of lithium-ion batteries, in the stator and rotor
of induction motors, in inverters and wiring. Pure battery electric
vehicles, or BEVs, which are powered exclusively by the electricity
stored in their battery, are more copper-intensive than plug-in
hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs, which have both a
battery-powered motor and an internal combustion engine.
Global copper demand will be positively impacted by an expansion
in electrification infrastructure to support growth in energy
demand, as well as from the expansion and upgrade of
telecommunications and EV charging networks, particularly in
China and the U.S.
Copper demand from solar and wind energy and from EVs, including
e-buses, is projected to account for 2.8 Mt in 2025, which
represents approximately 10.8% of the total forecast global copper
demand. The wide variation in copper usage intensity in the
renewable energy sector, however, simultaneously poses significant
upside and downside risks to copper demand to 2025.
Mineral resources are the key to a
more sustainable future.
To quote Prof. Richard
Herrington, “Mineral resources are the lifeblood of our
modern society and the key to a more sustainable future. Today, we
are in the middle of disruptive innovation in emerging green
energy, e-mobility and clean technology, triggered by pressing
societal challenges. The growing need for carbon-neutral technology
creates a strong demand for minerals, metals and advanced
materials”.
Development of a new mine at Parys Mountain, producing copper,
zinc and lead with gold and silver credits, can deliver economic
growth in the UK, regional jobs for the community and business
opportunities for local service providers. Hardly any of these
critical and strategic metals, essential for reduction in our
carbon footprint and transition to a green economy, are currently
produced in the UK leaving the country entirely dependent on
imports.
This creates a unique and timely opportunity, both for Anglesey
Mining and for the UK, to develop a new, modern, mine at Parys
Mountain in an environmentally sustainable manner.
About Anglesey Mining plc
Anglesey Mining is listed on the London Stock Exchange and
currently has 225,475,732 ordinary shares in issue.
Anglesey is developing its 100% owned Parys Mountain
copper-zinc-lead deposit in North
Wales, UK with a 2020 reported resource of 5.2 million
tonnes at 4.3% combined base metals in the Indicated category and
11.7 million tonnes at 2.8% combined base metals in the Inferred
category.
Anglesey holds an almost 20% interest, and management rights to the
Grangesberg Iron project in Sweden, together with a right of first refusal
to increase its interest by a further 50.1%. Anglesey also
holds 12% of Labrador Iron Mines Holdings Limited which holds
direct shipping iron ore deposits in Labrador and Quebec.
For further information, please
contact:
Jo Battershill, CEO/MD +44 (0)7540
366000
John Kearney, Chairman + 1 416
362 6686