Euro Manganese (ASX:EMN,TSXV:EMN,OTCQB:EUMNF) has entered an offtake term sheet with Wildcat Discovery for the sale of high-purity manganese product from its Chvaletice project in the Czech Republic.
The deal, dated August 15 and announced on Monday (August 19), is non-binding and subject to Wildcat completing its planned cathode materials plant in the US. It has an initial term of seven years with the potential for renewal.
Euro Manganese said the news is a major milestone for itself, as well as the west’s battery supply chain. President and CEO Dr. Matthew James added that the agreement accounts for a ‘significant percentage’ of Chvaletice’s output.
“An important value proposition is our product does not originate from, or is processed by, a foreign entity of concern, a key purchasing criteria for North American customers,” James emphasised in the company’s release.
Meanwhile, Wildcat said the arrangement is an important step as it looks to develop high-quality, low-cost, reliable and localised sources of cathode pre-cursor materials that are compliant with the US Inflation Reduction Act.
“We view the Euro Manganese partnership as an important piece to our supply chain strategy, and look forward to working with them in the coming years,” said Mark Gresser, CEO of Wildcat.
Euro Manganese notes on its website that Chvaletice is unique in that it is not a mining project. Instead, the company is looking to recycle waste by reprocessing tailings from a manganese deposit contained in tailings from a decommissioned mine that operated between 1951 and 1975. According to the company, Chvaletice is the only sizeable, classified resource of manganese in the EU, potentially allowing the area to reduce reliance on raw material imports from China.
The project’s July 2022 feasibility study outlines an after-tax net present value of US$1.34 billion using an 8 percent discount rate, and an approximately 22 percent after-tax internal rate of return.
Deliveries from Chvaletice are to begin at the time of first production, although the start of the offtake deal will depend on Wildcat’s qualification of Euro Manganese’s high-purity manganese product.
Although the term sheet is non-binding and is contingent on Wildcat setting up its US plant, both parties intend to enter a binding offtake agreement where they will finalise a pricing mechanism and tonnages, plus other conditions.
Securities Disclosure: I, Gabrielle de la Cruz, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.