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Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
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But in terms of cooperation with our resources, we know we have huge potential and we have said from the beginning let's have respectful conversations and talk about how we can strengthen the partnership. Also in terms of our mineral resources.
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That was Greenland's Prime Minister on partnering with the U.S. denmark's Prime Minister is now flying to meet with him today to discuss the territory's future which the US has a large interest in mining there. Joining us now, Tony Sage, CEO and Executive Chairman of Critical Metals. The company just greenlit the start of construction for a storage and pilot facility in Greenland for its rare earth and critical minerals project. Tony, thank you so much for joining. What a week it's been for everybody. But I think it's fair to say that especially you have been attuned to the news just the back and forth in Green Greenland, whether the US would take it by force now more of an agreement with military bases and a keen interest in minerals. Does this change anything for critical metals?
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Not really. On the ground we're going 100 miles an hour doing what we can control. We can't control the politics of the situation, but it certainly does affect us. I mean local people are very, very concerned and I've never been operating in Greenland for 22 years. I've never seen a protest before. So they are very, very concerned. It does affect our staff in Greenland, it does affect the mentality for the uncertainty for them. But for us as a company, we're going, like I said, 100 miles an hour. We're building pre construction, we're doing our pilot plant, our office and obviously the labs which is going to be very crucial in analyzing all the materials.
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Can you tell us what kind of agreements you've struck for the rights to do this mining? I mean for how have you got the rights? How do you split it up in terms of what you get out of the ground with the local economy? How does that look, Tony?
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Yeah, look at the moment we've got a 30 year, 500,000 ton per annum license to exploit the natural rare earths. The rare earths that we're going to concentrate on is not the lights for example, MP materials. We're going to go for the heaviest and we've got 4.7 billion tonne ore body which in effect would last a thousand years. But we've only going to do a fraction of that obviously at the beginning. So we're going to concentrate on the heavies which are the tourbillons, the half minions, the galliums and the dispersion, the tantalum. So those are the ones that the US Government can particularly interested in because it obviously fuels national defense. You cannot build an F35 fighter, you can't build a destroyer, nuclear power plants, etcetera, etcetera. So they're the ones that we're going to particularly concentrate on in Greenland.
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C
This has been an American government that's increasingly getting involved in corporate America, in corporations, especially when it comes to metals and taking stakes for your more recent projects. Have you had conversations with this government about doing just that? Any financial commitments that they're hoping to achieve?
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B
Yeah, look, we've had a very, very good discussion with Ex Im bank that we've signed an ally with the Ex Im Bank. It's a fantastic deal for us. It's $120 million over 14 years at only 1.9%. Really, if you take into account inflation, it's a negative interest rate. So. So that's been fantastic for us. We've applied for it under the old act DPA funding. So under the new terminology, it's CHIPS funding. We've applied for that, hopefully we get a fair on that. But we've done some very, very good financial maneuvering. We've decided to do 50% of the product to the US and 50% to the EU. So 100% of our offtake is now being taken up, which completely de risks the project. So it's fantastic for us, but fantastic for the EU. The Romanian government is heavily involved. 50% is going to go to them. And we've signed deals with UCOR in the States Reallos and we followed MP materials to the to Saudi. They've signed a deal with Trump and NBC a few months ago. We followed that lead and we're building a processing plant in Saudi. But all of the product from the Saudi processing plant will go to the.
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US So I was just going to ask, where are these minerals that you mine are going to be refined? Are you saying that half will be refined in the US or sort of at the behest of US companies, You know, because the refining question is one that sticks in my mind. It's a really difficult process, so I hear to refine these things. Maybe dirty and dangerous.
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B
Yeah, very difficult.
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So who does the refining of the stuff that you get?
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Okay, so we partner with the Romanian government with their nuclear department. They've reprocessing nuclear rods already in the plant. We're going to build our plant next door. The technology is there for us to do that. We're using the same technology in Saudi Arabia. So that that will be set the two 25% of the product that's coming directly to the United States. We're using the U core technology, they've got a plant in Louisiana and we're using the Realis technology which is based in Ohio. So that's 25% pure product going to the US for us. But the Saudi 25% we're going to refine that is going to go to the US the end product which are the terbiums, the Athenians, the nodiums, the galliums, etc.
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C
And Tony, just to kind of reiterate what we've been saying this this whole time and you've been saying that these minerals are highly important to the US And Trump has emphasized that with not just Arctic security as being part of the framework he says exists for a Greenland deal, but also mineral rights included in that framework. Tony, can you give us kind of a sober view of what wealth there is in Greenland when it comes to minerals? But not just that, but how difficult it is to get it out of the ground?
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Look, in a lot of areas of Greenland, as President Trump said, is under ice, under a lot of ice. We're very lucky with our deposits. We're in the southern part of Greenland. It's quite temperate. It only gets to minus 5 Celsius. It's colder in New York and Chicago at some points and 15 degrees in summer. So very temperate climate moment. But there are trillions, literally trillions of dollars of material in Greenland other than rare earths. You've got one of the biggest iron ore deposits, you've got uranium. The oil and gas potential is absolutely massive. So Greenland is a treasure trove. Unfortunately, a lot of those minerals and oil and gas aren't allowed to be exploited under the ruling of the Denmark control over Greenland. So you cannot draw for oil and gas. You cannot mine uranium, for example. So the potential for Greenland is fantastic. Unfortunately, the current laws don't let you exploit a lot of the material that they do have.
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Tony, great to get you on the program again. Thanks so much for joining us. Tony Sage there of critical metals talking about getting these rare earth minerals, heavy rare earth minerals out of the ground. And it's an incredibly important endeavor as we have grown to realize over the past few years for manufacturing of high tech goods.