European Green Transition (AIM: EGT), a company which aims to capitalise on the opportunities created by the green energy transition in Europe, announces it audited results for the year ended 31 December 2024.
FY 2024 Highlights
· Successful listing on the London Stock Exchange AIM in April 2024, raising gross proceeds of £6.46 million.
· Key milestone reached in preparing the Olserum Rare Earth Element (“REE”) project for sale or partnership with the successful completion of a 1,500m drill programme, confirming the district scale potential for REEs at the project.
· REE mineralisation was evident in every hole at the Olserum REE project with results, as announced in December 2024, including highlights:
o Hole OLS24-07 at Djupedal intersected 2.45m grading 2.71% Total Rare Earth Oxides (“TREO”) (33.4% Heavy Rare Earth Oxides (“HREO”)) from 40.0m to 42.45m within a broad mineralised zone averaging 22.5m grading 0.58% TREO.
o Hole OLS24-11, at Olserum West, intersected 8.2m grading 0.94% TREO (22% HREO) from 44.55m to 52.75m including 3.2m grading 1.57 % TREO.
o Hole OLS24-13, also at Olserum West, intersected the highest-grade drill core assay to date of 0.5m grading 8.83% TREO (16.1% HREO).
· Positive metallurgical test work completed at the Olserum REE project with results from a bulk sample taken from the historic drill core at Olserum confirming that a high-grade REE concentrate can be processed using conventional and relatively simple techniques.
· Signed an exclusive 12-month option to potentially acquire the rights to generate carbon and biodiversity credits at the Altan Carbon Credit project, a peatland carbon sink programme in Donegal, Ireland. Discussions ongoing with large local landowners and regulatory bodies to assess the near-term revenue potential of the project.
· Robust cash position of £3.7m as at 31 December 2024 with EGT well positioned to execute its strategy of acquiring distressed, revenue generating businesses in the green economy with its existing cash resources.
Post Period Updates
· Secured four-year licence extension to June 2029 for the Olserum REE project, a key step in the process to monetise the project through sale or partnership to a third party.
· Secured three-year licence extension to 2028 for the Pajala copper-graphite project in northern Sweden.
· Secured a six-month extension to the option agreement on the Altan Carbon Credit project in Ireland at no additional cost to continue positive ongoing discussions with key stakeholders with a view to generating near-term revenue from the generation of carbon and biodiversity credits.
· The Board has elected to allow its option over the Cyprus Copper Tailings Recycling project to lapse, enabling the Company to focus on other acquisition opportunities that more closely align with its strategy of generating revenue in the near-term.
Outlook for 2025 and Board Changes
From the conclusion of the 2025 Annual General Meeting (“AGM”), the Company’s co-founder, largest shareholder and Non-Executive Chairman, Cathal Friel, will assume the role of Executive Chairman. This transition will enable Mr Friel to lead EGT’s M&A strategy, which is focused on acquiring and transforming distressed, revenue generating businesses. This appointment also follows Cathal’s decision to step down from his role as Non-Executive Chairman of hVIVO plc effective from 5 June 2025, a position he has held for eight years.
Following the successful completion of the Olserum REE drill programme in 2024, and in recognition of the Company’s strategy to transition away from its mining assets and focus on acquiring revenue generating businesses in the green economy, the Board has decided that a different set of skills and expertise will be required to execute EGT’s M&A strategy going forward. The Board and Aiden Lavelle have mutually agreed that Mr Lavelle will step down from his role as Chief Executive Officer, and he will not seek re-election as a Director at the forthcoming AGM, and his employment will conclude on 30 June 2025.
As announced on 14 April 2025, Daniel Akselson changed roles from Non-Executive Chairman to Non-Executive Director. Daniel remains the head of the Audit Committee and will continue to support EGT’s strategy to monetise the Olserum REE and Pajala copper projects.
Having entered 2025 in a strong cash position, the Board believes EGT remains well positioned to execute on its M&A focused strategy with a number of discussions ongoing with distressed revenue generating businesses which the Company hopes to complete and which the Directors believe could be the optimal route to generate value for shareholders.
Cathal Friel, Co-founder and Non-Executive Chairman, commented:
“2024 was a foundational year for the business, during which we achieved many significant milestones including EGT’s IPO on the London Stock Exchange, and the successful execution of our low-cost drill programme at the Olserum REE project in Sweden. The work performed at the Olserum REE project has proved the district scale potential for REEs at Olserum and will support the potential sale or partnership of the project.
The current geopolitical environment, specifically the tensions between Trump’s new US administration and China, has led to China barring the export of certain rare earths. The importance of rare earths to the global economy is highlighted by President Trump’s mineral rights deal in Ukraine where he is attempting to secure future access rights to Ukraine’s rare earth assets. The Ukraine deal and China’s rare earth export bans have resulted in a substantial increase in interest in our Olserum REE project in Sweden. The urgent need for the establishment of a stable supply of REEs in Europe is clearly evident and EGT’s Olserum REE project, which has been designated as a project of National Interest in Sweden, has the potential to be of critical strategic importance for Europe’s REE supply security.
I am delighted to be assuming the role of Executive Chairman. As co-founder and largest shareholder of EGT, my interests are clearly aligned with our shareholders and I am confident that we can deliver on our M&A strategy in the near future as EGT’s focus moves away from mining towards acquiring distressed revenue generating businesses in the green economy. On behalf of the Board, I would also like to thank Aiden Lavelle for his contribution over the last year and his commitment to the Olserum REE project.
“As we look towards the rest of 2025 and beyond, we retain a strong cash position and remain highly focused on executing on our M&A strategy in the near term by acquiring distressed revenue generating businesses at attractive valuations. We are in discussions with a number of companies as we look to complete a potential deal that could create value for our shareholders as we aim to replicate the previous successes I have had on AIM, notably hVIVO plc (formerly Open Orphan plc) and Amryt Pharma plc.”
Enquiries
European Green Transition plc
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Cathal Friel, Chairman |
+44 (0) 208 058 6129 |
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Jack Kelly, CFO |
Chairman’s Statement For the year ended 31 December 2024
Introduction
I am pleased to present the 2024 Annual Results for European Green Transition plc (EGT), my first set of results as Non-Executive Chairman of the Company.
As previously announced, I was delighted to have been appointed Non-Executive Chairman of EGT in April 2025 and as of EGT’s Annual General Meeting in June 2025, I will assume the role of Executive Chairman. As co-founder and the largest shareholder of EGT, my interests are clearly aligned with our shareholders, and I am confident that we can deliver on our M&A focused strategy to acquire revenue generating businesses and create significant value for shareholders.
I am very excited for the future of EGT. I see huge near term opportunities to acquire and turnaround a number of distressed businesses through our M&A focused model. EGT has moved its focus away from mining and is now directing its resources towards acquiring revenue generating businesses at attractive valuations and I am confident that we can replicate the previous successes I have had on AIM, notably with hVIVO plc (formerly Open Orphan plc) and Amryt Pharma plc, by acquiring distressed businesses, implementing significant operational changes and generating significant value for shareholders.
I look forward to working more closely with the strong team we have established so far at EGT and to help the Company capitalise on the many exciting opportunities that would transform EGT into a profitable, cash generative business and deliver returns to our shareholders.
2024 Overview
In April 2024, we successfully completed our IPO, raising gross proceeds of £6.46 million and gaining admission to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.
Following our IPO, we made considerable progress on the Olserum Rare Earth Element (“REE”) project in Sweden with a successful 1,500m drill programme which proved the district scale potential for REEs at the Olserum project.
The current geopolitical uncertainty has highlighted the urgent requirement for Europe to establish a secure supply of REEs to support European industry and the Olserum REE project has the potential to be a critical supplier of REEs to Europe in the near future. As we outlined at IPO, EGT’s intention is not to develop its existing exploration mining assets through to production. Our focus is to monetise these assets, particularly the Olserum REE project, and we believe the Olserum REE project is now well positioned for sale or partnership with a large, established mining company who can support its future development while generating an attractive return for EGT shareholders.
These discussions are ongoing, and the Company’s focus and resources have now been directed to a number of exciting acquisition opportunities across Europe, with a particular focus on capitalising on revenue generating businesses which support the transition to a greener and more sustainable world.
Furthermore, during 2024 we entered into two exclusive option agreements on projects with near-term revenue potential: the Altan Carbon Credit project in Ireland and the Cyprus Copper Tailings Recycling project. Further details on both projects are outlined below.
Strategy Targeting Revenue Generating Businesses
We are making considerable progress implementing our strategy to acquire revenue generating businesses, with several advanced and ongoing discussions currently underway.
The current market volatility created by the ongoing geopolitical uncertainty presents significant funding challenges for a number of green focused businesses. This, together with the increase in interest rates over the last couple of years has created a number of exciting, distressed opportunities that fit EGT’s acquisition criteria and that we believe we can realise value from.
Our management team have a demonstrated track record of successfully leveraging the public markets to restructure distressed businesses and we believe we can replicate this approach with EGT. As such, our resources are now fully focused on acquiring businesses with a strong revenue profile that are currently profitable or have near term visibility to profitability.
EGT is in a strong position to implement this strategy and is well capitalised with £3.7m cash as at 31 December 2024 and no debt.
We believe our refined strategy represents the most effective approach to maximising shareholder returns in the current market environment. We look forward to keeping our shareholders informed as required as these deal discussions evolve in the coming months.
Olserum Rare Earth Project
International focus on REEs has grown in recent months, driven by their critical role in global supply chains, particularly in the production of permanent magnets essential to the renewable and defence sectors. China currently dominates the global supply, processing and refining of REEs, and with geopolitical tensions rising globally, there is a pressing need to establish a secure and resilient REE supply within Europe. With no active REE mines currently operating in Europe, we believe the Olserum REE project holds significant value and could be of critical strategic importance for Europe’s REE supply security in the years ahead.
During the summer of 2024, we completed a low-cost drill programme at our Olserum REE project in Sweden, completing 13 holes for c.1,500 metres of diamond core drilling. The programme was completed ahead of schedule and below budget, adhering to our commitment to spend less than 10% of IPO funds raised on our exploration assets.
The results of the programme were positive, confirming the district scale REE potential of the project while also significantly de-risking the project for an incoming acquiror. The results of the programme were announced in December 2024 indicating that REE mineralisation was evident in every hole and some encouraging intersections including:
• Hole OLS24-07 at Djupedal intersected 2.45m grading 2.71% TREO (33.4% HREO) from 40.0m to 42.45m within a broad mineralised zone averaging 22.5m grading 0.58% TREO.
• Hole OLS24-11, at Olserum West, intersected 8.2m grading 0.94% TREO (22% HREO) from 44.55m to 52.75m including 3.2m grading 1.57 % TREO.
• Hole OLS24-13, also at Olserum West, intersected the highest-grade drill core assay to date of 0.5m grading 8.83% TREO (16.1% HREO).
Furthermore, new preliminary metallurgical studies were undertaken in 2024. Crucially, these studies confirmed that the mineralisation style at Olserum can produce a high-grade REE concentrate from simple magnetic separation followed by standard flotation. The concentrate can be further upgraded with high-intensity magnetic separation to separate the apatite from the monazite and xenotime leaving a concentrate with between 30-40.11% TREO in the tests conducted. The REE minerals recovered are monazite and xenotime, both phosphate minerals which are processed commercially at other sites globally. A well understood processing methodology is critical for incoming acquirers, avoiding the requirement for bespoke processing infrastructure.
In May 2025, we announced that the Olserum REE licence was extended for a further four-years, to June 2029. This extension could be critical for any incoming acquiror or partner of the Olserum REE project and further strengthens the Company’s position in discussions going forward.
The work performed in 2024 has been fundamental to our strategy to monetise the Olserum REE project with a third party through sale or partnership. We are confident that the positive drill results, the strong metallurgical results, extending the licence for a further four-years and the encouraging local stakeholder and community engagement will facilitate this and generate an attractive return for our shareholders, as we look to prioritise other projects with immediate and scalable revenue potential.
Pajala Copper-Graphite Project
The Pajala project, located in northern Sweden, has excellent copper potential in addition to the high-grade graphite with potential for several million tonnes evident from historic work and new drill targets. The licence was formerly held by Anglo American with several widely spaced Anglo American drillholes intersecting copper at Liviovaara including the last hole 01Liv009 e.g. 10.75m @ 0.5% Cu and 310ppm Co along with other intersections in the same hole.
Similar to our approach for the Olserum REE project, we are confident of realising value for shareholders from this project through sale or partnership. This process was supported by extending the licences by three years to March 2028 given the work conducted by EGT pre-IPO.
The strength and resilience of copper prices has continued to make the project attractive to third parties as copper remains a critical component for the electrification of the global economy.
Altan Carbon Credit Project
In May 2024, we entered into an exclusive option agreement to investigate the potential to develop a carbon credit project at the 1,370-acre Altan farm in Donegal in the northwest of Ireland. The project aims to establish a consistent revenue stream by generating carbon and biodiversity credits through a pilot peatland rehabilitation project and, subsequently selling these credits to a range of corporate players who are looking to invest in Irish nature-based restoration projects to support their net zero targets.
The Irish Peatland Standard was launched in early 2025. This brings together stakeholders from government, semistate bodies, and local communities to direct capital to restoration projects by producing and facilitating the sale of verified nature certificates such as carbon credits. In order to maintain our capital efficient approach, we are seeking to position Altan as a potential pilot programme for the Irish Peatland Standard as we look to be one of the first movers in Ireland in the generation of these credits. Furthermore, we are actively engaging with key stakeholders including large landowners near our project in Donegal with the view to significantly scaling the size of the project and the quantity of credits that can be generated. To facilitate the continued progress of the project, we have extended our option agreement by a further 6 months, to the end of November 2025, at no further cost to the Company.
Cyprus Copper Tailings Recycling Project
In April 2024, we entered into an exclusive option agreement to commence due diligence on, and potentially acquire, the Cyprus Copper Tailings Recycling project at the historic Limni mine in north-west Cyprus. Despite the initial diligence on the project proving to be positive, due to our strategic focus, we have now decided to let the option agreement lapse as we focus on other acquisition opportunities in our pipeline that better fit our strategy and can generate a better near term return on capital for our shareholders.
Leadership
As outlined above, I will assume the role of Executive Chairman of EGT at the AGM later this month. This appointment follows my decision to step down from the Board of hVIVO plc after 8 years as Chairman effective from the 5th of June 2025, I am very excited by the opportunities ahead for EGT and the potential to replicate the successful formula we used with hVIVO plc, whereby we identified two distressed loss-making businesses and transformed them into the world leader in the testing of vaccines and antivirals using human challenge trials.
As announced on the 14th April 2025, Daniel Akselson has changed roles from Non-Executive Chairman to Non-Executive Director and will continue to manage our Swedish assets and key stakeholder relationships. Daniel continues to chair our Audit Committee, and I look forward to continuing to work closely with him.
Following the completion of the Olserum REE drill programme in 2024 and in recognition of the Company’s strategy to transition away from its mining assets and focus EGT’s resources on acquiring revenue generating businesses, a different set of skills and expertise will be required to execute EGT’s revenue focused strategy going forward. The Board and Aiden Lavelle have mutually agreed that Aiden will step down from his role as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director from today and will remain with the Company until 30 June 2025. As such, Aiden will not seek re-election at the 2025 Annual General Meeting.
On behalf of the Board and EGT management team, I would like to thank Aiden for his contribution over the last year and commitment to the Olserum REE project. Aiden will continue to support the Company as we progress discussions to monetise the Olserum REE project through a sale or partnership with third parties.
Outlook
Looking ahead to the remainder of 2025 and beyond, we retain a strong cash position and are excited by the Company’s potential to execute on our M&A focused strategy and generate value for shareholders.
Against a supportive market backdrop for REEs, we are confident that the results of the Olserum REE drill programme will support the monetisation of the project. We are also optimistic that we can monetise the Pajala copper project in Sweden, which has potential to deliver value to shareholders.
I would like to thank our shareholders for their continued support, and I look forward to reporting on our progress throughout 2025.
Cathal Friel
Non-Executive Chairman
3 June 2025
