Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd has received notification from the Government of Burundi of a temporary suspension on the export of concentrate produced from trial mining and processing operations at its Gakara Project in Burundi (“the Project”).
The notification was received by Rainbow’s operating subsidiary, Rainbow Mining Burundi SM, from the Ministry of Hydraulics, Energy and Mines of the Republic of Burundi (“the Ministry”) on 12 April 2021.
Whilst this development does not impact on Rainbow’s ongoing exploration, trial mining and processing operations at the Project, which continue to progress in line with expectations, the Company will not ship concentrate until this issue is resolved. Rainbow is working in cooperation with the Ministry to seek further information and an expeditious resolution to this issue and will update the market in due course. Due to the nature of the trial mining operations this is not expected to have a material impact on the Company’s short term cash flow projections, which envisage an ongoing investment program in Burundi to fully define the opportunity for a large-scale commercial mining operation.
George Bennett, CEO, said: “Whilst we are currently uncertain of the origins of this development in Burundi, I am in Burundi, undertaking ongoing, constructive discussions with the Ministry and other stakeholders to resolve this issue and allow exports to recommence. Whilst we have suspended the shipment of concentrate from Gakara, we plan to continue to conduct exploration, trial mining and processing activities at the Project and remain committed to a swift resolution to this issue, in cooperation with the Government and other related stakeholders.
Rainbow’s Phalaborwa Project in South Africa remains on track and we continue to make good progress and expect to announce the final drilling results in the coming days.”
