Ferro-Alloy Resources Limited (LON:FAR), the vanadium producer and developer of the large Balasausqandiq vanadium deposit in Southern Kazakhstan, has announced its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2026.
Overview
The Company’s main focus during the year to date has been the progression of the Balasausqandiq vanadium deposit to production.
Concurrently, the Company has continued to operate the existing plant at the mine site for the production of both vanadium and molybdenum from recycled concentrates that were considered sufficiently profitable to process and for research and development purposes.
Project progression
Following the issue of the feasibility study in October 2025, the current stage of the Project’s development is front-end engineering and design, after which the Company expects to receive quotations from construction engineers for the building of the Project. Concurrently, in order to secure finance for the Project, the Company is engaging with various financial institutions and other governmental organisations, particularly in the US, which may support the financing of the Project owing to vanadium and rare earth elements (“REEs”) being critical metals. To that end, the Company has received a letter from a large US government financing institution (“the USGFI”) indicating the USGFI’s willingness to consider a formal application for a loan for the Project, subject to the USGFI’s comprehensive review and approval process.
Research and development
The Group has focused on two main areas of R&D during the period; the progression of the carbon black substitute (“CBS”) product and the development of processes to recover the REEs contained within the Balasausqandiq ore.
CBS
Following a competitive tender process, the Group has been awarded a new grant of US$500,000 by the Kazakhstan Science Fund. The purpose of the grant is to fund the installation of new equipment that will support the preparation of samples of CBS (40% carbon) for future industrial-scale testing and commercial offtake negotiations. Once installed, the plant will be capable of producing up to 1,000 tonnes of high grade CBS sample. Under the terms of the funding, the Group is required to co-fund the grant with US$227,000.
Concurrently, the Group has continued test work and product refinement processes with potential Chinese customers.
REEs
The ore at the Balasausqandiq is known to contain REEs, as evidenced by historical analytical work conducted at the deposit as part of the Company’s previous studies.
The Group has focused on the optimisation of the processes to recover the yttrium and other REEs present in the residual leach solutions produced by the proposed Project processing facility, following the extraction of the vanadium, to produce a mixed rare earth concentrate.
Processing
- Despite the focus of the existing plant being on R&D, the Group procured and treated vanadium-bearing concentrates that were considered sufficiently profitable to process.
- As a result, in the first six months of the year, the existing plant produced 96 tonnes (2025: 151 tonnes) of vanadium pentoxide (mainly as ammonium metavanadate) and 14.6 tonnes (2025: 27.8 tonnes) of molybdenum (in ferro-molybdenum).
Financial
- Total revenues of US$1.8 million for the period (H1 2025: US$2.5 million) reflected a 35% reduction in the volume of raw materials processed by the plant during the period due to the unavailability of suitable materials available in the market for processing.
- Overall loss for the period was US$3.2 million (H1 2025: loss of US$3.5 million).
- Cash balance of US$0.8 million at the period end (H1 2025: US$0.4 million). Cash balance at 31 August 2026 of US$0.5 million.
Corporate
- During the period, the Company issued 28,621,701 ordinary shares of nil par value in the capital of the Company for gross proceeds of £1,574,194.
- Subsequent to the period end, the Company issued 167,647,046 ordinary shares of nil par value in the Company raising gross proceeds of £5,700,000. The funds raised were used to repay the outstanding principal and accrued interest due to the bondholders of Tranche 1 and Tranche 3 of the 2023 US$20 million Kazakhstan bond programme.
Post period
- Peter Secker has been appointed as incoming Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”), effective from mid-October 2026, subject to final contract. Current CEO, Nick Bridgen, will become non-executive Deputy Chairman.
- Signing of a memorandum of understanding with Maglut Heavy Industries Inc, a California-based developer of a proprietary chromatography REE separation platform, providing a potential downstream route for Balasausqandiq REEs into the US market.
Nick Bridgen, CEO of Ferro-Alloy Resources said:
“The Project continues to make good progress with the advancement of several key workstreams during the first half of the year.
The development of the CBS is an important component of the Project’s overall economics, contributing to a strong Phase 1 net present value approaching US$1 billion. R&D activities have remained focused on developing this product with a view to securing off-take agreements. The recent strength in the prices of REEs gives us an opportunity to develop another important by-product which will even further enhance net present value and, importantly, reduce the cash cost attributable to vanadium production even lower, cementing the Company’s position as by far the lowest cash cost producer of any vanadium producer currently operating or developing projects.”
