Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM) (OTCMKTS:ASMMF) has been granted a trading halt by ASX with an announcement pending relating to a material investment into the company’s flagship Dubbo Project.
The halt will remain in place until the start of regular trading on Wednesday, July 21, or until an announcement is released to the market, whichever occurs earliest.
Shares last traded at A$7.40 after recently reaching a record high of A$7.90, while the company’s market cap is approximately A$1.032 billion.
EFA letter of support for Dubbo Project
The company recently received conditional finance support from Export Finance Australia (EFA) to secure A$200 million of debt funding for its Dubbo Rare Earths Project in Central NSW.
After issuing the letter of support, EFA began detailed due diligence of the project, in line with its mandate to support eligible Australian projects with targeted debt solutions to supplement private-market finance.
ASM managing director David Woodall said the Dubbo Project’s alignment with the objectives of the Australian Government’s critical minerals strategy - to diversify global critical mineral supply and capture more value from the critical minerals value chain - would be a key factor in a successful application to secure Australian Government financing.
He said: “The critical metals we will produce from the Dubbo Project - including zirconium, niobium and hafnium, and the rare earth elements neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium - are all in high demand for a suite of modern industrial applications, including energy-efficient technologies, electric vehicles, aerospace, defence and telecommunications.”