This just in
2016 Shareholder Update
From Mark A. Smith, P.E., Esq.
Executive Chairman & CEO, NioCorp Developments Ltd.
Fellow Shareholders –
In advance of NioCorp’s 2016 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, which will convene later this morning (at 10 a.m. Mountain), I thought I would provide you with this progress report on our Company and on our flagship Elk Creek Superalloy Materials Project.
2016 was a year of tremendous progress for NioCorp and for the Elk Creek Project. Here are some highlights:
• As of yesterday’s TSX close, shareholders have seen our share price rise 44% year-to-date. Over the past three years from yesterday’s close, holders have benefited from a 387% increase in the share price.
• NioCorp succeeded in raising more than US$10.5 million from financings that closed in 2016, with the aim of advancing the Elk Creek Project.
• We placed under contract another 25 percent of our planned Ferroniobium production in 2016. In conjunction with the agreement we signed with ThyssenKrupp at the end of 2014, this means that three-quarters of our target primary product is now under binding sales contracts.
• The final planned metallurgical pilot plant needed for the Elk Creek Feasibility Study is running right now and is expected to complete later today. After more than two years of intense work, we are now wrapping up the final elements of our Feasibility Study.
• We plan to begin sending commercial Scandium product samples to prospective customers in early 2017.
• We moved forward in our Elk Creek Project permitting process by completing a nearly two-year-long Jurisdictional Delineation process with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). This has allowed us to advance to the next stage of permitting.
• We become a U.S. reporting issuer in 2016 with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission under U.S. federal securities laws, which potentially makes it more efficient for any future NioCorp securities offerings under U.S. securities laws.
While 2016 was a very successful year for NioCorp, we believe 2017 promises to be a truly banner year. Following the anticipated release of our Feasibility Study, we plan to launch an effort to secure project financing. It is difficult to assess how long that process will last. However, assuming that our effort bears early fruit, it is possible that we will be able to initiate onsite construction activities before the end of 2017. That is certainly my hope.
Let me provide you with an overview of the progress we made in 2016, with an aim of bringing the Elk Creek Project to commercial reality, and what I see on the horizon for this outstanding Company ...
To read the rest of Mr. Smith's "2016 Shareholder Update,"
please download the full letter in pdf form.
