THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF ARTICLE 7 OF REGULATION 2014/596/EU WHICH IS PART OF DOMESTIC UK LAW PURSUANT TO THE MARKET ABUSE (AMENDMENT) (EU EXIT) REGULATIONS (SI 2019/310) ("UK MAR"). UPON THE PUBLICATION OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, THIS INSIDE INFORMATION (AS DEFINED IN UK MAR) IS NOW CONSIDERED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN, THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OF SUCH JURISDICTION.

28 January 2025

Cobra Resources plc

("Cobra" or the "Company")

Successful Production of First Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate from Boland

Industry stand-out grades with bottom quartile cost potential

Notice of Investor Q&A

Cobra (LSE: COBR), the mineral exploration and development company advancing a potentially world-class ionic Rare Earth Elements ("REEs") discovery at its Boland Project ("Boland") in South Australia, is pleased to announce that it has successfully produced a potentially saleable mixed rare earth carbonate ("MREC") at laboratory scale from its in situ recovery ("ISR") study on permeable ore from Boland.

Details of next steps and a live investor Q&A on Thursday, 30 January 2025 appear further below.

Summary

·    Exceptionally high grade: 62.4% of the MREC product is comprised of Total Rare Earth Oxides ("TREO"), one of the highest TREO grades produced from ionic REE projects globally

·    High critical Heavy Rare Earth ("HREO") content: industry standout HREO quantity of 14.5% of MREC

·    Low impurities: low elemental impurities of 3.13% with low levels of uranium (34 ppm) and thorium (<10 ppm)

·    High recoveries with optimisation upside: final ore to MREC recoveries of 59% Magnet Rare Earths ("MREO") and 55% HREO, optimisation tests demonstrate considerable increases to HREO recoveries further improving product value

·    High value return: based on treated sample grade of 4,447ppm TREO, ~4.2kg of MREC could be produced from one tonne of Boland ore at this grade

·     Validation of favourable mining method: ionic recoveries through controlled ISR, eliminating high capital costs and challenges associated with the mining and handling of clay ores. This proof-of-concept highlights the potential for Boland to be a bottom quartile, environmentally considerate source of strategic metals

·    Maiden MREC product a precursor to offtake discussions

·    Results from 54 resource-focused drillholes expected during February 2025

Rupert Verco, Managing Director of Cobra, commented:

"We are delighted with the results of our first product sample from Boland. This is an exceptional milestone for the Company as it validates Boland's potential bottom quartile cost operating metrics, owing to the mineralisation's amenability to ISR, and confirms that a quality product can be achieved through a simple, low-cost flowsheet.

Impurity removal is a very important aspect of any rare earth project. To achieve such high purities with 62.4% of the MREC being rare earth oxides in our first attempt is outstanding! Such a high purity product from a simple, low-cost flow sheet is a clear demonstration of Boland's commercial potential.  

Boland brings together stand-out ionic mineralisation and unique geology that lends itself to low capital and operating costs. These features give us growing confidence of a high margin future operation. Further process optimisation shall focus on increasing the recovery of strategic heavy rare earths that will further increase not only the value and margin of our product but the project's strategic importance.

With stage 1 of our resource drilling programme completed, we look forward to announcing initial drilling results during February. We are well placed to demonstrate the significant scale of Boland with a further 7,500m of drilling planned over the coming months. Additionally, we are well financed to rapidly advance the development of the project and demonstrate significant upside that we expect to translate to value for our shareholders."

Figure 1: MREC produced from bench scale ISR extraction from Boland core CBSC0003 26.7 - 27.2m

Maiden Impurity Removal and Precipitation Programme

The results of the Company's initial trial product are exceptionally encouraging as the TREO content within the carbonate is one of the highest produced from ionic projects globally¹. Relatively low impurities and low levels of uranium and thorium support the generation of a potentially saleable product produced through the lowest cost form of mining from both an economic and environmental perspective: ISR. Key points include:

·    The Company engaged the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation ("ANSTO") to determine the optimal flowsheet steps required to produce an MREC sample

·    Pregnant liquor from the Company's initial bench scale ISR study was used for impurity removal and MREC precipitation:

o  High-grade sample of 4,447 ppm TREO, including 865 ppm Nd₂O₃ + Pr₆O₁₁ and 128 ppm Dy₂O₃ + Tb₂O₃

o  Achieved over 150 days (0.14 pore volumes per day) by decreasing the pH from 7.1 to 3.0 through the addition of 0.5M ammonium sulphate (AMSUL) (H₂SO₄)

o  Low acid consumption of 15 kg/t H₂SO₄

o  Valuable MREO recoveries of 68% MREO

o  Strategic HREO recoveries of 62% HREO

·    ~580mls of pregnant liquor with a weighted pH of 3.95 was used to evaluate impurity removal via two steps, carried out at room temperature and using 150 g/L NH₄HCO₃ solution as the neutralising agent

·    Once the pH setpoint was reached in each step the mixture was agitated for a further 15 minutes and then vacuum filtered. The solids were then washed on the filter three times with deionised water and dried at 105^oC. The solids were digested and analysed by ICP-OES and ICP-MS. Process steps include:

o  Step 1 - Neutralise to pH 4.9, to precipitate Fe

o  Step 2 - Neutralise to pH 6.0, to precipitate the large majority of Al

o  Step 3 - Neutralise to pH 7.5, to precipitate MREC

·    At these pH levels, virtually all the Fe is rejected in the first step and >99% of the Al is rejected by the second step

·    First pass precipitation testing delivered high downstream recoveries of:

o  TREO 89%

o  MREO 87%

o  HREO 84%

·    Exceptional proof-of-concept results for ISR with ore to final product recoveries of:

o  TREO 59%

o  MREO 59%

o  HREO 55%

·    MREC is well weighted with strategic HREOs even with recoveries being lower than the recoveries achieved in follow-up optimisation studies. Mixed Rare Earth Oxide distribution shown in Table 1 below:

Table 1: Rare Earth Oxide distribution in Boland MREC in comparison to other peer REE projects, expressed as weight percentage of MREC:

·    Impurity levels are low for a maiden product with ~3.13% elemental impurities. The distribution of which is shown below:

Table 2: Boland MREC composition impurities expressed as elemental weight %

·    Owing to flowsheet simplicity, upside remains in further optimisation, aiming to reduce the loss of REE and increase HREO recovery through pH adjustment, testing alternate lixiviants and neutralising agents

Significance of results

Both purity and TREO content are important factors in producing a quality saleable product. The specifications of this initial product are promising with the TREO content being the highest of several advancing REE projects (refer to figure 2), with the MREC being well weighted with HREOs, even with initial HREO recoveries being lower than optimisation leach tests.

Figure 2: Quantity (as percentage) of LREO and HREO reporting to industry MREC products

Figure 3: Process flowsheet used to produce Boland's maiden MREC

Next steps

·    Results from 54 resource focused aircore drill holes expected during February

·    Stage 2 resource drilling to commence upon receipt of Stage 1 results

·    Further sonic core drilling over a greater footprint to support density and permeability estimates (March - April)

·    Finalisation of environmental baseline studies and permitting to enable infield permeability tests (May)

·    Engineering design of tracer study to confirm bench scale permeabilities (May)

·    Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (June - July)

·    Infield permeability testing (June - July)

Notice of Investor Q&A

Managing Director Rupert Verco will host a live webinar and Q&A session on Thursday, 30 January 2025 at 10.30 a.m. GMT to discuss the significance of the Company's first MREC production from Boland as well as next steps for the project.

Investors and interested parties are invited to register via the link below and submit questions before or during the live webinar. Follow the directions on Cobra's investor hub to register: https://investors.cobraplc.com/webinars/GyVwQe-investor-q-a-maiden-mixed-rare-earth-carbonate-success 

A recording of the webinar will be made available on the Cobra website after the event.

References:

1.    Total Rare Earth content compared to publicly available MREC specifications produced from ionic rare earth projects.

2.    Viridis Mining & Minerals, Cupim South and Centro Sul. ASX Announcement - 12^th December 2024: Maiden mixed rare earth carbonate ('MREC') product from Southern Complex

3.    Meteoric Resources, Caldeira. ASX Announcement - 29 February 2024: First Mixed Rare Earth Carbonate (MREC) Produced for Caldeira REE Project

4.    Brazilian Critical Minerals, Ema. ASX Announcement - 11^th November 2024: High-value mixed rare earth product successfully produced from Ema project

5.    Red Metal, Sybella. ASX Announcement - 8^th July 2024: Maiden trial product from Sybella rare earth ore

6.    Victory Metals, North Stanmore. ASX Announcement - 6 November 2023: High value mixed rare earth carbonate produced

Boland Project

Cobra's unique and highly scalable Boland discovery is a strategically advantageous ionic rare earth discovery where high grades of valuable HREOs and MREOs occur concentrated in a permeable horizon confined by impermeable clays. Bench scale ISR testing has confirmed that mineralisation is amenable to ISR mining. ISR has been used successfully for decades within geologically similar systems to recover uranium within South Australia. Results of this metallurgical test work support that, with minor optimisation, ISR techniques should enable non-invasive and low-cost production of critical REEs from Cobra's Boland discovery.

Follow this link to watch a short video of CEO Rupert Verco explaining the results released in this announcement: https://investors.cobraplc.com/link/GyVlGr  

Further information relating to Boland and these metallurgical results are presented in the appendices.

Enquiries:

The person who arranged for the release of this announcement was Rupert Verco, Managing Director of the Company.

Information in this announcement relates to exploration results that have been reported in the following announcements:

·    Wudinna Project Update: "Further Positive Metallurgy Results from Boland Project", dated 16 December 2024

·    Wudinna Project Update: "2^nd Bench Scale ISR Study & £1.7M Placing", dated 26 November 2024

·    Wudinna Project Update: "ISR Bench Scale Study Completion", dated 4 November 2024

·    Wudinna Project Update: "ISR bench scale study delivers exceptional results", dated 1 October 2024

·    Wudinna Project Update: "ISR bench scale update - Exceptionally high recoveries with low impurities and low acid consumption; on path to disrupt global supply
of heavy rare earths", dated 28 August 2024

·    Wudinna Project Update: "ISR bench scale update -Further metallurgical success at world leading ISR rare earth project", dated 11 July 2024

·    Wudinna Project Update: "ISR bench scale update - Exceptional head grades revealed", dated 18 June 2024

·    Wudinna Project Update: "Re-Assay Results Confirm High Grades Over Exceptional Scale at Boland", dated 26 April 2024

Competent Persons Statement

The information in this report that relates to metallurgical results is based on information compiled by Cobra Resources and reviewed by Mr Conrad Wilkins who is the Group Process Engineering Lead at Wallbridge Gilbert Aztec, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (FAusIMM), Chartered Professional Engineer and Member of Engineers Australia (CPEng MIEAust). Mr Wilkins has sufficient experience that is relevant to the metallurgical testing which was undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 edition of the "Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves". Mr Wilkins consents to the inclusion in this report of the matters based on this information in the form and context in which it appears.

Information in this announcement has been assessed by Mr Rupert Verco, a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Verco is an employee of Cobra and has more than 16 years' industry experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation, deposit type, and activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves of JORC. This includes 12 years of Mining, Resource Estimation and Exploration.

About Cobra

In 2023, Cobra discovered a rare earth deposit with the potential to re-define the cost of rare earth production. The highly scalable Boland ionic rare earth discovery at Cobra's Wudinna Project in South Australia's Gawler Craton is Australia's only rare earth project amenable for in situ recovery (ISR) mining - a low cost, low disturbance method enabling bottom quartile recovery costs without any need for excavation or ground disturbance. Cobra is focused on de-risking the investment value of the discovery by proving ISR as the preferred mining method and testing the scale of the mineralisation footprint through drilling.

Cobra's Wudinna tenements also contain extensive orogenic gold mineralisation, including a 279,000 Oz gold JORC Mineral Resource Estimate, characterised by low levels of over-burden, amenable to open pit mining.

Regional map showing Cobra's tenements in the heart of the Gawler Craton

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Appendix 1: Background information - the Boland Project and ISR

·    The Boland Project was discovered by Cobra in 2023. Mineralisation is ionically bound to clays and organics within palaeochannel sands within the Narlaby Palaeochannel

·    Mineralisation occurs within a permeable sand within an aquifer that is saltier than sea water and is confined by impermeable clays

·    ISR is executed through engineered drillhole arrays that allow the injection of mildly acidic ammonium sulphate lixiviants, using the confining nature of the geology to direct and lower the acidity of the orebody. This low-cost process enables mines to operate profitably at lower grades and lower rates of recovery

·    Once REEs are mobile in solution in groundwater, it is also possible, from an engineering standpoint, to recover the solution to surface via extraction drillholes, without any need for excavation or ground disturbance

·    The capital costs of ISR mining are low as they involve no material movements and do not require traditional infrastructure to process ore - i.e. metals are recovered in solution

·    Ionic mineralisation is highly desirable owing to its high weighting of valuable HREOs and the cost-effective method in which REEs can be desorbed

·    Ionic REE mineralisation in China is mined in an in-situ manner that relies on gravity to permeate mineralisation. The style of ISR process is unconfined and cannot be controlled, increasing the risk for environmental degradation. This low-cost process has enabled China to dominate mine supply of HREOs, supplying over 90% globally

·    Confined aquifer ISR is successfully executed globally within the uranium industry, accounting for more than 60% of the world's uranium production. This style of ISR has temporary ground disturbance, and the ground waters are regenerated over time

·    Cobra is aiming to demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits of recovering ionic HREOs through the more environmentally aquifer controlled ISR - a world first for rare earths

Figure 4: Comparison between the Chinese and the proposed Boland process for ISR mining of REEs

Appendix 2: JORC Code, 2012 Edition - Table 3

Appendix 3: Section 2 reporting of exploration results