THOR Medical and Steenkampskraal Holdings Limited (SHL) in South Africa have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for feedstock supply and technology cooperation.
The ambition is to enter into a long-term partnership agreement for supply of feedstock as part of Thor Medical’s strategy of developing multiple feedstock suppliers.
The Steenkampskraal Monazite Mine (SMM) in the Western Cape is considered to have among the highest concentration of rare earth elements and thorium globally. The mine’s abundant resources of natural thorium are sufficient to meet the global demand for medical isotopes from its decay for the foreseeable future.
The plan is to leverage Thor Medical’s expertise to efficiently produce valuable alpha-emitters for use in next generation cancer treatment from feedstock from Steenkampskraal’s mineral resources.
“The cooperation with Steenkampskraal can support Thor Medical’s ambitions for the planned industrial-scale production to meet the growing demand for medical isotopes globally. We look forward to developing partnership agreements with Steenkampskraal as we build our network of suppliers,” says Alf Bjørseth, CEO of Thor Medical.
The Steenkampskraal Monazite Mine is a fully licensed to operate mining project and is compliant with all necessary regulatory requirements from, inter-alia the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, the National Nuclear Regulator, and the Department of Water and Sanitation.
The mine has already commenced refurbishment and the start-up of the construction is targeted by the end of 2024. Production of thorium is targeted by the end of 2025.
“The board of Steenkampskraal is very excited about and look forward to entering into the cooperation agreement with Thor Medical as it highlights even more, the intrinsic value of our monazite ore, not just financially and in the critical minerals space, but also in the critical medical treatment space,” says Enock Mathebula, Executive Chairperson of Steenkampskraal.
