Mkango Resources Ltd. Announces Songwe Hill Rare Earths Mining Project in Malawi

Published: 2025-06-04 14:50:45 ET MKA.V

Published on 06/04/2025 at 14:50

Mkango Resources Ltd. announced that the Songwe Hill Rare Earths Mining Project in Malawi ("Songwe") has been designated as a Strategic Project by the European Commission under the Critical Raw Materials Act ("CRMA"). Strategic Project status confirms the importance of Songwe in supplying rare earths to supply chains across Europe, North America and other markets. Songwe is one of the very few rare earth projects globally to have advanced to the NI 43-101 compliant Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS") stage, with a full Environmental, Social, Health Impact Assessment ("ESHIA") also completed in compliance with IFC Performance Standards.

A mining development agreement was signed with the Government of Malawi in July 2024. At that time, Pulawy was announced as one of the EU-based strategic projects, with a further list of 13 international projects released including Songwe, one of only two rare earths projects. Songwe has been assessed by the EU to be highly important to the EU's supply security of strategic raw materials and possesses viable technical feasibility within reasonable timeframes.

Under the CRMA, the project is required to be implemented in a sustainable manner, minimising environmental and social impacts. Obtaining Strategic Project status offers key advantages for developers, significantly facilitating and accelerating the development of strategic raw materials projects within and outside the EU. As previously announced on 8 January 2025, a proposed SPAC merger (the "Merger") between Mkango's subsidiary, Lancaster Exploration Limited ("Lancaster"), and certain other wholly-owned subsidiaries of Mkango and Crown PropTech Acquisitions ("CPTK") will create a vertically integrated global pure play rare earths platform that is intended to result in the ordinary shares of Lancaster being listed on NASDAQ.

Upon the Merger and listing, Lancaster, as the listed entity, will hold the Songwe and Pulawy Projects.