> Northern Minerals is an interesting case. (Disclaimer: I'm a shareholder and keep a close eye what is going one)
> Northern Minerals is an interesting case. (Disclaimer: I'm a shareholder and keep a close eye what is going one)
For Northern in particular - they have a binding offtake agreement with Iluka for everything they mine, and Iluka are 60-70% towards completing their processing plant (with a huge Government backed loan) by mid next year. The issue the last few years is the intense interest from CCP-linked entities who currently hold ~27% of the shares and have attempted to take over the board multiple times. The Government has so far been willing to intervene, but it's set them back at a time that the funding to push for a FID was much more readily available.
Iluka have also had hiccups as there was a 6 month delay while they requested additional money to meet costs (it's harder and more expensive to source the required plant equipment without China) and their existing business of zircon and titanium products is also struggling as China was a major customer.