Vancouver, March 25,
2021 – Leading Edge Materials Corp. (“Leading Edge
Materials” or the “Company”)
(TSXV: LEM) (Nasdaq First North:
LEMSE) (OTCQB: LEMIF) announces first
quarter results for the period ending January 31, 2021. All
references to dollar amounts in this release are in Canadian
dollars.
Highlights During and After the
Quarter
During the three months ended January 31, 2021
the Company:
- Appointed Finnish
capital markets firm Lago Kapital Oy as liquidity provider for its
Nasdaq First North Stockholm listing replacing ABG Sundal Collier
ASA.
- Signed a non-binding Letter of Intent with CSE-listed United
Lithium Corp. (“ULTH”) contemplating the potential sale of 100% of
the Bergby Lithium project. The potential sale is subject to,
among other matters, a due-diligence review by ULTH and the signing
of a binding Definitive Agreement which the Company is working
towards finalizing.
- Commissioned Minviro Ltd., a London based globally recognized
life cycle assessment (“LCA”) consultancy, to build an LCA model
and deliver an LCA report for the Woxna Graphite project. The
LCA work carried out by Minviro includes a cradle-to-gate life
cycle inventory and a life cycle impact assessment for five impact
categories of interest. The results will be delivered to the
Company in form of an ISO-Compliant Full Life Cycle Assessment and
Report. In addition, Minviro will benchmark the results for Woxna
against other functionally equivalent industry LCA data, including
a number of both natural and synthetic graphite alternative
products for energy storage applications.
Subsequent to January 31, 2021 the Company:
- Signed a Definitive
Agreement on February 11, 2021 to sell 100% of the Bergby Lithium
project to CSE-listed United Lithium Corp (the “Transaction”). The
Transaction is subject to, among other matters, certain closing
conditions which the Company is working towards finalizing. On and
subject to the conditions set forth in the Agreement, the Company
will receive the following consideration under the
Transaction:
a)
CAD$250,000 in cash on the closing date of the Transaction (the
“Closing Date”);
b)
1,031,864 common shares in the capital of ULTH (each, a “ULTH
Share”);
c)
400,000 common share purchase warrants (the “Warrants”) with each
Warrant entitling the Company to acquire, for a period of 36
months, one ULTH Share at an exercise price equal to approximately
CAD$0.485;
d)
an additional $250,000 in cash on the date that is 6 months
following the Closing Date; and
e)
a 2% net smelter returns royalty on the Project, which shall be
subject to a buyback right in favour of ULTH for CAD$1,000,000.
- Appointed Mr. Sanjay Swarup as new Chief Financial Officer. Mr.
Swarup holds a Master of Business Administration from Cranfield
School of Management (Bedforshire, UK) and is a chartered
accountant from India and the UK with over 25 years of experience
in accounting and business consulting, with 15 of those years in
the resource industry. Mr. Swarup has held the role of CFO for a
number of UK and Canadian listed resource companies. Between 2009
and 2018 Mr. Swarup was the CFO of TSX-listed Mandalay Resources
which operates a producing gold mine in Sweden.
- Announced development work together with Forge Nano (Colorado,
USA) on Atomic Layer Deposition coating of spherical purified
graphite from Woxna to optimize future performance of Woxna’s
lithium-ion battery anode materials. The coating for anode
materials can increase cycle life, charge rate and conductivity
whilst improving safety. A recent price assessment produced by
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence for the Company shows average
pricing in 2020 for uncoated natural spherical graphite at around
US$3,000 per tonne and for coated natural spherical graphite
between US$7,000 per tonne (domestic China and non-EU) and
US$12,000 per tonne (high-end applications), with an average price
of around US9,500 per tome for material used in cells for Western
OEMs.
- Announced that its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders will
be held Wednesday, April 21, 2021.
Three Months Ended January 31, 2021
Compared to Three Months Ended October 31, 2020
During the three months ended January 31, 2021
(“Q1/2021”) the Company reported a net loss of $668,278 compared to
a reported net loss of $554,569 for the three months ended October
31, 2020 (“2020/Q4”), an increase in loss of $113,709.
Three Months Ended January 31, 2021
Compared to Three Months Ended January 31, 2020
During the three months ended January 31, 2021
(“Q1/2021”) the Company reported a net loss of $668,278 compared to
a net loss of $407,304 for the three months ended January 31, 2020
(“Q1/2020”), for an increase in loss of $260,974. The
increase in loss was primarily attributed to increases in Research
and Development, Directors and Officers Compensation, and Corporate
Development expenses in Q1/2021.
Selected Financial Data
The following selected financial information is
derived from the audited consolidated financial statements of the
Company prepared in accordance with IFRS.
|
Fiscal 2021 |
Fiscal 2020 |
Fiscal 2019 |
Three Months Ended |
January 31,2021$ |
October 31,2020$ |
July 31,2020$ |
April 30,2020$ |
January 31,2020$ |
October 31,2019$ |
July 31,2019$ |
April 30,2019$ |
January 31,2019$ |
Operations |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Expenses |
(664,675) |
(882,556) |
(420,959) |
(337,609) |
(375,930) |
(409,297) |
(561,771) |
(571,749) |
(850,681) |
Other items |
(3,603) |
327,987 |
(21,567) |
20,187 |
(31,374) |
(8,799,476) |
27,101 |
46,864 |
1,602 |
Comprehensive loss |
(668,278) |
(554,569) |
(442,526) |
(317,422) |
(407,304) |
(9,208,773) |
(534,670) |
(524,885) |
(849,079) |
Basic and diluted loss per share |
(0.00) |
(0.01) |
(0.00) |
(0.00) |
(0.00) |
(0.09) |
(0.01) |
(0.01) |
(0.01) |
Financial Position |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Working capital |
2,598,191 |
3,277,010 |
3,354,422 |
499,883 |
711,727 |
132,551 |
518,129 |
929,183 |
1,438,895 |
Total assets |
28,759,753 |
27,218,052 |
27,832,104 |
24,722,718 |
24,803,562 |
24,825,107 |
34,088,219 |
35,359,241 |
35,766,406 |
Total non-current liabilities |
(9,154,787) |
(7,053,874) |
(7,486,123) |
(7,452,242) |
(7,154,761) |
(7,701,324) |
(7,876,382) |
(8,637,726) |
(8,515,027) |
Financial Condition / Capital
Resources
During the three months ended January 2021 the
Company recorded a net loss of $668,278, as at January 31, 2021 the
Company had an accumulated deficit of $40,561,830 and working
capital of $2,598,191. The Company is maintaining its Woxna
Graphite Mine on a “production-ready” basis to minimize costs and
is conducting ongoing research and development to produce higher
specialty products. The Company has also commissioned PEA
studies on the Woxna Graphite and Norra Karr projects. The
Company anticipates that it has sufficient funding to meet
anticipated levels of corporate administration and overheads for
the ensuing twelve months however, it will need additional capital
to provide working capital and recommence operations at the Woxna
Graphite Mine and/or modernize the plant to produce value added
production, to fund future development of the Norra Karr Property
and complete the tendering process and, if successful, exploration
activities in Romania. There is no assurance such additional
capital will be available to the Company on acceptable terms or at
all. In the longer term the recoverability of the carrying
value of the Company’s long-lived assets is dependent upon the
Company’s ability to preserve its interest in the underlying
mineral property interests, the discovery of economically
recoverable reserves, the achievement of profitable operations and
the ability of the Company to obtain financing to support its
ongoing exploration programs and mining operations. See also
“COVID-19”.
During the three months ended January 31, 2021
the company has issued 393,109 shares due to exercise of options by
option holders for gross proceeds of $79,863.
During fiscal 2020 the Company completed the
following private placement financings:
(i) 18,000,000
units at $0.056 per unit for gross proceeds of $1,008,000; and
(ii) 32,000,000 units at
a price of $0.11 per unit for gross proceeds of
$3,520,000.
In addition, during fiscal 2020 the Company
issued 800,000 common shares on the exercise of warrants for
$80,000. The net proceeds from these financings and warrant
exercises have been designated to maintain the Company’s projects
in Sweden and Romania and for general working capital and corporate
purposes.
Outlook
The Company’s projects are directly linked to
high growth technologies such as batteries for electromobility and
energy storage and permanent magnets for electric motors and wind
power that underpin the clean energy transition towards climate
neutrality.
Increasing demand for electric vehicles, limited
supply combined with supply chain disruptions has led to strong
price developments year to date for key battery materials such as
graphite, cobalt and lithium. Similarly, prices for key permanent
magnet rare earth elements such as neodymium, praseodymium,
dysprosium and terbium have risen sharply year to date due to
strong demand limited supply combined with supply chain
disruptions.
The Company is continuing to finalize the two
preliminary economic assessment (“PEA”) studies on our Swedish
projects.
For Woxna, the PEA is looking to demonstrate the
potential added economic benefit of producing active anode material
for the lithium-ion industry based on the Company’s research and
development of downstream processes. Woxna benefits from access to
low cost green hydroelectricity which offers a distinct competitive
and sustainability advantage. To demonstrate this advantage, the
Company has commissioned a life cycle assessment (“LCA”) on the
envisioned production from Woxna which aligns with the sustainable
battery regulation announced by the European Commission in late
2020 that will enforce carbon footprint declarations on any
batteries placed on the European market. The LCA report is planned
to be released concurrently with the PEA report. There has been a
constant flow of battery factory capacity announcements, most
recently by Volkswagen announcing plans for six 40GWh battery
plants by 2030 in Europe alone. With a built mine looking to add
the downstream value add processing, and an ideal location
logistically in Sweden, Woxna is in the right time and place to
benefit from the expected exponential growth in graphite anode
demand over the next decade.
For Norra Karr, the PEA targets to demonstrate a
new potential operational model for REE production that maximizes
resource efficiency whilst minimizing the environmental footprint
of the project. The Company believes this new operational model
could be key to promote public support for the project in addition
to delivering potential improvement in project economics. Norra
Karr is one of few heavy rare earth element projects of its kind
globally, and the only project in Europe that could supply
significant amounts of critical permanent magnet rare earths such
as dysprosium and terbium. As Europe is urgently looking to support
the development of its own rare earth magnet value chain to reduce
reliance on China, Norra Karr could be a key piece to solve that
puzzle.
The results from these two PEA studies, which
are expected in the near future, will provide the basis for the
next steps in development for each project so we are looking at a
very active remainder of 2021. Importantly, the studies will
provide the details of what the investment case looks like for the
projects which can then be communicated to the broader investment
community.
Qualified
Person
The qualified person for the Company’s project,
Mr. Mark Saxon, B.Sc. Hons (Geology), a Fellow of the Australasian
Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, technical adviser to the
Company, has reviewed and verified the technical contents of this
release.
Financial Information
The report for the three months ended April 30, 2021 is expected
to be published on or about June 23, 2021.
On behalf of the Board of
Directors,Leading Edge Materials
Corp.
Filip Kozlowski, CEO
For further information, please contact the Company
at:info@leadingedgematerials.com
www.leadingedgematerials.com
Follow us Twitter:
https://twitter.com/LeadingEdgeMtls Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/leading-edge-materials-corp/
About Leading Edge
MaterialsLeading Edge Materials is a Canadian public
company focused on developing a portfolio of critical raw material
projects located in the European Union. Critical raw materials are
determined as such by the European Union based on their economic
importance and supply risk. They are directly linked to high growth
technologies such as batteries for electromobility and energy
storage and permanent magnets for electric motors and wind power
that underpin the clean energy transition towards climate
neutrality. The portfolio of projects includes the 100% owned Woxna
Graphite mine (Sweden), Norra Karr HREE project (Sweden) and the
51% owned Bihor Sud Nickel Cobalt exploration alliance
(Romania).
Additional Information
The Company’s unaudited consolidated financial
statements for the three months ended January 31, 2021 and related
management’s discussion and analysis are available on the Company’s
website at www.leadingedgematerials.com or under its profile on
SEDAR at www.sedar.com
The information was submitted for publication
through the agency of the contact person set out above, on March
25, 2021 at 1.15pm Vancouver time.
Leading Edge Materials is listed on the TSXV
under the symbol “LEM”, OTCQB under the symbol “LEMIF” and Nasdaq
First North Stockholm under the symbol "LEMSE". Mangold
Fondkommission AB is the Company’s Certified Adviser on Nasdaq
First North and may be contacted via email CA@mangold.se or by
phone +46 (0) 8 5030 1550.
Reader Advisory
Certain information in this news release may
constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking
information within the meaning of applicable securities laws
(collectively, “Forward-Looking Statements”). All statements,
other than statements of historical fact, addressing activities,
events or developments that the Company believes, expects or
anticipates will or may occur in the future are Forward-Looking
Statements. Forward-Looking Statements are often, but not
always, identified by the use of words such as “seek,”
“anticipate,” “believe,” “plan,” “estimate,” “expect,” and “intend”
and statements that an event or result “may,” “will,” “can,”
“should,” “could,” or “might” occur or be achieved and other
similar expressions. Forward-Looking Statements are based
upon the opinions and expectations of the Company based on
information currently available to the Company.
Forward-Looking Statements are subject to a number of factors,
risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of the
Company to differ materially from those discussed in the
Forward-Looking Statements including, among other things, the
Company has yet to generate a profit from its activities; there can
be no guarantee that the estimates of quantities or qualities of
minerals disclosed in the Company’s public record will be
economically recoverable; uncertainties relating to the
availability and costs of financing needed in the future;
competition with other companies within the mining industry; the
success of the Company is largely dependent upon the performance of
its directors and officers and the Company’s ability to attract and
train key personnel; changes in world metal markets and equity
markets beyond the Company’s control; the possibility of
write-downs and impairments; the risks associated with uninsurable
risks arising during the course of exploration; development and
production; the risks associated with changes in the mining
regulatory regime governing the Company; the risks associated with
tenure to the Norra Karr property; the risks associated with
the various environmental regulations the Company is subject
to; rehabilitation and restitution costs; the Company’s
preliminary economic assessment on Woxna is no longer current or
valid as a result of the filing of a new NI 43-101 Technical Report
effective March 24, 2015, as such there is an increased risk of
technical and economic failure for the Woxna graphite project; and
dealings with non-governmental organizations. Although the
Company has attempted to identify important factors that could
cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in
the Forward-Looking Statements, there may be other factors that
cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or
intended. There can be no assurance that such Forward-Looking
Statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future
events could differ materially from those anticipated in such
Forward-Looking Statements. Such Forward-Looking Statements
has been provided for the purpose of assisting investors in
understanding the Company’s business, operations and exploration
plans and may not be appropriate for other purposes.
Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on
Forward-Looking Statements. Forward-Looking Statements are
made as of the date hereof, and the Company does not undertake to
update such Forward-Looking Statements except in accordance with
applicable securities laws.
- 20210325 LEM 2021Q1 press release
- Leading Edge Materials 2021Q1 report
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