Reporting results for the three months to September 30, Noventa’s new chief executive officer, Fernando Fernandez-Torres, said that he was in the process of reviewing the firm’s business plan and budget for 2012 with the aim of reducing costs. Fernandez-Torres said that he is also re-evaluating the investment required to develop the firm’s Morrua asset, which boasts double the parts per million of tantalum concentrate of its existing producing mine at Marropino, “with a view to make a less intensive capital project than initially anticipated”.

During the quarter, Noventa achieved production of 38,903 pounds of tantalum pentoxide – a 23 per cent increase on Q2 2011 and more than double Q1 2011 production. For the first nine months of the year, production at its Marropino plant amounted to 86,633 pounds.

The construction of a new processing plant at Marropino is “well advanced” and only slightly behind schedule, said the firm, which expects production to ramp up to 600,000 pounds of tantalum pentoxde during 2012.

Noventa said that a previously reported water problem at Marropino has now been resolved with the installation of a pumping station and water pipeline. The solution has been tested and “will provide long term security of the process water supply irrespective of the weather conditions”.

Meanwhile, the firm has recommenced shipping to its client in Thailand using normal shipping routes. Currently, Noventa has 72,500 pounds of tantalum pentoxide ready for final blending that it anticipates will be shipped during this quarter.

The firm also announced today that it had made an annual interest saving of US$763,000 as a result of the redemption of convertible preference shares.

Tantalum miner Noventa (LON:NVTA) has hired Luca Bechis, a founding partner of Richmond Capital, as the group’s new non-executive director.

Richmond Capital is one of Noventa’s major shareholders. Bechis has considerable experience in the City, with past experience at Cazenove & Co and hedge fund Egerton Capital.

"We are delighted at the appointment of Luca to the board of Noventa,” said chairman Eric Kohn. 

“He brings great strategic perspective to the board and has demonstrated his belief in the Company consistently over the last year."

Last week Noventa completed its US$37.6 million fundraising.

The 73,600,000 new shares have now been admitted to the AIM market. Last month, in its quarterly and six month statement, Noventa noted that a "very difficult" second quarter to 30 June had resulted in a pretax loss of US$2.39 million for the period, with revenues totalling US$0.27 million. 

In the statement, Eric Kohn, chairman of Noventa also revealed that an extensive review and update to the budget supporting the company’s business plan has now been completed with the help of its advisers.

The additional requirements that triggered the need for a fundraiser were first discovered and announced in June by Kohn. The needs proved to be significantly greater than previously envisaged by Noventa’s business plan, including in relation to the new process plant at Marropino, and other necessary projects.  

With its funding issues now put to rest, Noventa can now charge full speed ahead on its process plant upgrade, and hammer out any issues prior to full ramp-up of its upgraded process plant.

Tantalum miner Noventa (LON:NVTA, TSE:NTA) today confirmed that it has now completed its US$37.6 million fundraising.

This morning it  announced that the 73,600,000 new shares have now been admitted to the AIM market. Last Friday, in its quarterly and six month statement, Noventa noted that a "very difficult" second quarter to 30 June had resulted in a pretax loss of US$2.39 million for the period, with revenues totalling US$0.27 million. 

In the statement, Eric Kohn, chairman of Noventa also reveals that an extensive review and update to the budget supporting the company’s business plan has now been completed with the help of its advisers.

The additional requirements that triggered the need for a fundraiser were first discovered and announced in June by Kohn. The needs proved to be significantly greater than previously envisaged by Noventa’s business plan, including in relation to the new process plant at Marropino, and other necessary projects.  

With its funding issues now put to rest, Noventa can now charge full speed ahead on its process plant upgrade, and hammer out any issues prior to full ramp-up of its upgraded process plant.

The company previously said it requires US$25 million to bring its new plant at its Marropino mine in Mozambique into full operation.

It held an extraordinary general allowing it to increase its share capital, which gives directors the green light to issue more stock.

“The company has commissioned an independent working capital review from one of the Big Four firms of accountants, and the company expects to finalise its refinancing plans on the completion of this review, at which point an update will be provided to shareholders,” investors were told.

The new plant at Marropino, with planned capacity of 600,000 pounds of tantalum a year, is on schedule to begin production at the end of the year. 

“This will further Noventa's objective to become a profitable low cost industrial scale producer of tantalum bearing concentrate,” shareholders at the EGM heard. 

Production for July averaged 177,000 pounds a year of tantalum contained in concentrate, and is expected to reach 200,000 pounds August once all modifications are completed, the company said.

Tantalum, with unique chemical properties, is widely used in the electronics industry, mainly as powder and wire for capacitors in telecommunications devices and implantable medical devices.

It also goes into the manufacture of super alloys, mobile phones, computers and automotive electronics.

Noventa (LON:NVTA, TSE:NTA) plans to raise funds in the UK and Canada via placings in the two countries and an open offer.

The firm has appointed Jacob Securities as its agent in Canada in connection with fundraising involving ‘special warrants’. The special warrants will be issued by way of a private placing on a “best efforts” basis.

At the same time as the Canadian fundraising, Noventa plans to undertake a placing in the UK. Following the successful completion of the Canadian offering and UK offering, the company intends to start as open offer of ordinary shares for all qualifying shareholders. It added that details of this open offer will be provided to shareholders in due course.

Religare Capital Markets continues to be the company’s broker in the UK for the purposes of this UK offering, the firm said.

Yesterday, the Mozambique-focused miner announced it had renegotiated its off-take deal with HC Stark, while its finance director had offered his resignation.

The revised agreement to supply Stark with tantalum will see the price paid by Stark rise between 27 and 36 per cent up to the end of 2013. Stark will buy 29 per cent more of the metal over that period and it has an option to extend its deal with Noventa to the end of 2014 or 2015.

Daniel Cassiano-Silva, the firm’s finance director, plans to leave in November. Noventa said it would update the market on his replacement at the “appropriate time”.  

Tantalum miner Noventa (LON:NVTA, TSX:NTA) said that drilling results from its exploration programme to the north east and south of its producing Marropino mine suggest that both pegmatite bodies at these locations do not constitute an economic resource.

At Marropino Northeast, maximum values of 61 parts per million tantalum pentoxide were obtained, while five diamond drillholes yielded results of between 61 ppm and above at Marropino South. Two of these drillholes produced samples of tantalum pentoxide at parts per million of 98.

The analysis of the drill programme’s core samples was conducted by the ALS laboratory in Johannesburg and the Inspectorate Metals and Minerals laboratory in Rustenburg, South Africa.

Last week, the company updated shareholders that production levels at Marropino, which is located in Mozambique, had exceeded its annualised target of 175,000 pounds of tantalum concentrate in June with a recovery rate of over 51 percent.

Earlier in June, Noventa said it would need US$25 million of funds to bring new plant at the Marropino mine in Mozambique into full operation, so that it could achieve targeted production of 600,000 pounds per annum. The company is calling an extraordinary general meeting of its shareholders on 29 July in order to secure necessary approval to increase its authorised share capital.

Noventa plans to become the world’s largest, low-cost industrial-scale supplier of tantalum concentrate. Tantalum is a key metal used in the consumer electronics industry.

Tantalum miner Noventa (LON: NVTA,TSX: NTA) will need to raise  US$25 million (£15.3 million) to bring the new plant at its Marropino mine in Mozambique into full operation, the company said this morning.

Noventa’s shares closed down 61.5 percent yesterday after the firm announced a series of problems at Marropino including the need to invest further in plant at the mine in order to achieve targeted production of 600,000 pounds per annum.

Today, Noventa said that it had begun discussions regarding funding options and that it hoped to secure funds before the end of July.

The company plans to ramp up production from 500,000 pounds contained tantalum pentoxide to the full rate by the end of the year. The firm added that any delays experienced as a result of the funding gap “are expected to be minimal if the additional funds are in place prior to mid-July”.

Noventa said that it would need US$5.5 million of the new funds for exchange rate-related operating expenditure and capital expenditure, US$10.5 million is needed for unanticipated capex and opex and a further US$9 million is required for working capital. The firm currently has a cash position of approximately US$17.6 million.

Yesterday’s announcement stated that its interim comminution circuit (ICC) had not been achieving its target production rate of 200,000 pounds per annum due to mechanical difficulties. The firm has taken corrective action and now anticipates that production will increase from its current rate of production of circa 140,000 pounds per annum to 175,000 pounds per annum by the end of June and 200,000 pounds per annum by the end of July.

Meanwhile, Noventa plans to ship two 5,100-pound batches of tantalum pentoxide concentrate to two off-take customers by mid-June.

The firm said that although the introduction of an interim comminution circuit (ICC) has substantially increased the rate of production at Marropino, it has not been possible to maintain the achieved and targeted rate or production of 200,000 pounds per annum for a sustained period due to mechanical difficulties.

Noventa has taken corrective action, expected to be completed this month, but the firm said that it has become increasingly apparent that the capital expenditure required to bring the new plant – with a capacity of 600,000 pounds per annum – into full operation will be significantly higher than originally anticipated.

The experience of commissioning the ICC, as well as other factors, has led Noventa to reassess its estimates of the period between the ramp up in production of the new plant to the point when the company becomes cash flow positive.

These other factors include a lack of rainfall that has led to unusually low levels in the dams that serve the processing plant and further capital expenditure on purchasing additional earth-moving equipment, spare parts, laboratory equipment and a larger crane, as well as increased supervisory costs, greater consumption of energy than anticipated and the unexpected strength of the South African rand and Mozambican metical against the US dollar.

Noventa currently has a cash position of approximately US$17.6 million, which the firm said is now substantially less than its requirements as it seeks to bring the new processing plant into operation. Consequently, the firm is consulting with advisers to consider what amount will be needed and how to raise the additional funds required.

The firm added that it is making progress in its search for new management, including a new CEO. In the meantime, John Allan – CEO from July 2009 to May 2010 – remains acting CEO.

In April 2010 Noventa restarted the Marropino Tantalum mine, in Mozambique. Since then an intensive commissioning period saw a four-fold increase from the early 50,000 pound (lb) a year production rate up to 200,000 pounds.

One a corporate level the group has added an important North American listing and it successfully completed a series of fund raisings.

The company’s previous chief executive, and the director in charge of ‘Project Restart’, John Allan has stepped in following Lawless’ departure.

Noventa said that Allan will assume the chief executive role for the time being.

"We are very sorry to lose Pat Lawless, but fully understand his reasons and wish him and his family all the best at this difficult time,” chairman Eric Kohn said. “We are very grateful to John Allan for stepping into the breach."

They are 47-year-old mining engineer Ian Benning and Lars Berglund, 69, professor of medicine at Sweden’s Lund University and chairman and controlling shareholder of cargo group West Air Europe.

Benning is currently the head the South African operations of Hemisphere Corporate Services, a Perth-based company involved in mining.

Before that he was an investment adviser for the private equity firm African Global Capital and has worked for Absa Capital, Rand Merchant Bank and Anglo American Group.

Noventa chairman Eric Kohn said: "We are delighted to welcome Ian and Goran to the board of Noventa.  

“Ian's broad experience of various aspects of the African mining industry will be invaluable, while we look forward to benefiting from Prof. Berglund's wisdom and experience."

Noventa has set itself the ambitious target of becoming the world's largest, low cost industrial scale supplier of tantalum concentrate, a rare metal widely used in the consumer electronics industry.  

There is currently a shortage of tantalum supply and stock levels in the industry are being run down. 

Noventa is in a unique position of being able to expand production to meet the industry’s needs. 

The group’s Marropino mine in Mozambique resumed production last April, and the company has pumped in US$23 million of new investment to upgrade the company’s plant and equipment and improve output. 

In an update in October Noventa revealed Marropino and the nearby Morrua mines are capable of producing an estimated 6.21 million pounds of tantalum over a 9.3 year life-span of the two operations.

The payback on the projects is anticipated to be just 20 months, while the net present value of the two mines is US$69.67 million based on a 10 per cent discount rate, according to the report prepared by Scott Wilson Roscoe Postle Associates.

The report put the indicated resource at Marropino alone at 7.4 million tonnes grading 223 parts per million of tantalum for 3.64 million pounds of tantalum contained.