Firering Strategic Minerals plc (LON:FRG), a development company focusing on critical minerals, has announced its Final Results for the year ended 31 December 2024. The Company also gives notice that its Annual General Meeting will be held at Hill Dickinson LLP, The Broadgate Tower, 20 Primrose Street, London EC2A 2EW on 24 July 2025 at 10am BST. The Notice of AGM will be sent to shareholders and the Notice of AGM and Accounts will be made available to download later today from the Company’s website www.fireringplc.com.
OVERVIEW
· Executed a strategic pivot to prioritise Limeco, an advanced, near-term quicklime production opportunity in Zambia with strong cash flow potential.
· Acquired an initial 20.5% interest in Limeco, with an option to increase interest to 45%; advanced discussions with a leading Zambian bank to fund the option.
· Focused on optimising Limeco’s high-capacity lime plant ahead of phased kiln recommissioning, with full production of c.200ktpa targeted for 2026.
· Published a maiden JORC-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate confirming 50+ years of potential production, positioning Limeco as Zambia’s leading future quicklime supplier.
· Recorded first commercial sales of quicklime, with purity levels exceeding typical metallurgical industry requirements, in early June 2025.
· Established complementary revenue streams as part of zero-waste strategy, including sales of aggregate, which reached nameplate capacity of over 30ktpm in January 2025.
· Progressed the Atex Lithium Project in Côte d’Ivoire, increasing known mineralisation by 122% to an 800-metre strike length; preparations are underway to define a maiden JORC resource.
Commenting on the results Yuval Cohen, CEO of Firering Strategic Minerals said: “2024 marked a pivotal year for Firering as we undertook a strategic reset to focus on the Limeco quicklime project in Zambia, a near-term production asset with highly attractive fundamentals. With demand for quicklime continuing to grow, particularly as a critical reagent in a range of industrial processes including copper production, which itself is set for significant expansion, we are pleased to have been able to increase our interest in this exciting project during the year and oversee a comprehensive programme of redevelopment and optimisation.
“Early momentum has been encouraging. The first of Limeco’s eight kilns was successfully brought online in Q1 2025, followed by first sales in Q2. Furthermore, a clear pathway is now established to ramp up to the project’s nameplate production capacity of approximately 200,000 tonnes per annum in 2026.
“As we look ahead, we do so with renewed strategic clarity, strengthened operational focus, and a firm commitment to building long-term value and delivering a compelling growth story for all our stakeholders.”
The following is extracted from the Annual Report and Accounts:
CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT
2024 was a transformational year for Firering, one in which we refocused our strategy and laid the foundations for scalable, long-term growth. This realignment marked a shift from a pure-play explorer into a dual-pronged business model that combines cash-generative production from industrial minerals with long-term value creation from our critical minerals exploration portfolio.
Central to this strategic evolution was our decision to prioritise the development of Limeco Resources Limited, a vertically integrated quicklime production asset in Zambia. With over US$100 million of historical investment and an advanced infrastructure base, including a Tier 1 limestone deposit, two-stage crushing circuit, and eight-kiln lime plant, production at this significant and strategically important asset is ramping up, targeting between 600 and 800 tonnes of quicklime per day in 2026.
Following the successful completion of a £2.3 million fundraising in May 2024, we were pleased to announce the execution of a share purchase agreement (“SPA”) for the phased acquisition of an initial 20.5% interest in Limeco, with an option to increase our stake to 45% through additional tranches.
The strategic rationale for this was clear: the quicklime market in Zambia and the broader Central African Copperbelt is underserved and heavily reliant on high-cost imports from inter alia South Africa. Limeco presented a unique opportunity to meet rising domestic demand, particularly from Zambia’s ambitious copper expansion, while generating early cash flow from its aggregate production to support the growth of the business.
Following extensive recommissioning and optimisation efforts throughout 2024, Limeco successfully fired the first of two new gasifiers and the first kiln in February 2025. An optimisation period followed, during which we fine-tuned throughput and product quality. Accordingly, having produced saleable quicklime with purity levels of 85-90%, exceeding typical metallurgical industry requirements, Limeco recorded its first commercial sales of high-purity quicklime in early June 2025.
As optimisation efforts continue to progress, Kiln 1 is now consistently producing commercial-grade quicklime at a rate of up to 50 tonnes per day, demonstrating both stability and reliability, and serving as a strong operational benchmark as we prepare to commission Kilns 2, 3 and 4. This phased, modular strategy is intentionally designed to de-risk expansion while maintaining quality and production discipline.
Limeco is not just a quicklime production asset; it is a fully integrated, zero-waste operation designed with efficiency and sustainability in mind. The limestone quarry feeds into a two-stage crushing circuit with a throughput of 300 tonnes per hour. Limestone is sorted by a double-deck screen to feed vertical kilns (+60mm to -90mm fraction) and by a triple-deck screen that processes the -60mm stream into three aggregate size fractions. Having reached nameplate production capacity of 30,000 tonnes per month in January 2025, these aggregate products are being sold to local industrial markets, providing a valuable revenue stream ahead of the ramp-up to full-scale quicklime production.
In addition, Limeco continued building other complementary income streams, including a logistics services agreement and the sale of ash to the concrete industry, to enhance Limeco’s long-term commercial resilience and optimise the value of all site outputs. As part of this strategy, Limeco plans to construct an on-site cement plant, which will be fed from a separate deposit adjacent to its Tier 1 deposit and will utilise ash produced from its quicklime operations, further expanding its revenue base and supporting a circular, value-driven approach to resource use.
Limeco’s operations are underpinned by a strong geological foundation. In November 2024, a maiden JORC-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate (‘MRE’) conducted by Earthlab confirmed a total limestone resource of 145.2Mt at 95.7% CaCO₃. This includes 11.8Mt in the Measured category, 55.4Mt in Indicated, and 78.0Mt in Inferred. The updated MRE, which included an adjacent 392.51-hectare exploration licence granted in September 2024, nearly doubles the tonnage from the previous non-JORC resource estimate and provides over 50 years of potential production at nameplate capacity. The resource is hosted across three domains – A, B, and C – with current operations focused on Domain A. However, Domains B and C offer long-term optionality and would support further future industrial applications like the planned cement plant.
Quicklime is a vital input across a range of industrial processes, including steel production, water treatment, construction, and agriculture. Its most strategic application, however, is in copper processing, an industry set for exponential growth due to copper’s central role in clean energy technologies. In response to this global demand, the Zambian government has set an ambitious target to nearly quadruple national copper output from 821kt in 2024 to 3Mt by 2031. This objective appears well within reach, with Q1 2025 already recording a 30% year-on-year increase. Achieving this would propel Zambia from the world’s 7th-largest to the 3rd-largest copper producer, placing considerable pressure on domestic supply chains and creating a compelling growth opportunity for Limeco.
Quicklime prices, although not transparently traded, have ranged from US$137 to US$221 per tonne over the past two years. With Zambia historically dependent on more expensive imports from inter alia South Africa, Limeco’s domestic advantage, combined with its product quality and logistical efficiency, positions it to become the supplier of choice for Zambia’s growing copper and industrial base. Due to commercial sensitivities, Firering will only disclose spot pricing and customer information as required under regulatory obligations.
While Limeco has become our core focus, we remain highly confident in the long-term potential of our 90%-owned Atex Lithium Project in Côte d’Ivoire. Situated within a geologically prospective region and closely aligned with accelerating global demand for green energy technologies, Atex is well positioned to deliver significant value over the medium to long term.
In 2024, we completed a 3,753-metre RC drilling programme across 23 holes at Atex to extend the strike length of known lithium mineralisation by 122% to 800 metres. Our next phase of work will target expansion of the mineralised zone to the east and north, with the goal of delineating a maiden JORC resource.
Early in the year, we were delighted to welcome Remy Welschinger to the board as an Independent Non-Executive Director. Rémy is the Cofounder and President of Viridian Lithium SAS, and a Non-Executive Director of the Zambia-focused copper explorer Arc Minerals Limited. Up until 2018, he was Head of Commodities Sales in Europe for Deutsche Bank and previously an Executive Director in the Fixed Income and Commodities division of Morgan Stanley in London.
Under the leadership of our CEO, Yuval Cohen, Firering retains day-to-day operational oversight at Limeco. He is supported by a skilled team, which includes former Limeco technical staff with intimate knowledge of the plant, as well as independent consultants with decades of industrial minerals experience.
We also benefit significantly from our strategic partnership with our major shareholder, Rina Group, and its affiliate Rompartner Ltd, which owns one of Israel’s largest quicklime production facilities. Their contribution has added an additional layer of operational best practice and plant-specific insight that has helped us accelerate optimisation and commissioning.
As previously outlined, we raised £2.139 million in May 2024 through a placing, subscription, and retail offer to fund the initial acquisition of Limeco. This was followed in March 2025 by the agreement of an unsecured bridge loan facility of up to £1 million to provide working capital and support operational activity during Limeco’s production ramp-up. In the same month, we completed a further fundraise of £2.014 million to meet the 30 April 2025 deadline for the SPA tranche payment, increasing our interest in Limeco to 20.5%. The offering was well supported with participation from four Firering board directors demonstrating strong and growing investor confidence in our strategy and our operational delivery.
In parallel, we submitted a commercial loan application to a leading Zambian bank to finance the completion of our Limeco acquisition. The facility, if successfully completed, would allow us to increase our stake in Limeco to up to 45% and repay the existing bridge loan, providing greater exposure to future cash flows without further equity dilution. A non-binding term sheet has already been signed, and, having satisfied the key condition of achieving first sales, we are optimistic about finalising the agreement in the near term.
As we look ahead, Firering stands at an exciting inflection point having transitioned from developer to producer, a significant milestone that marks the beginning of a new and value-generative chapter for the Company.
With the phased ramp-up of Limeco progressing well, early commercial revenues in hand, and a clear pathway to scaling production to full capacity in 2026, we are building the foundations of a profitable, resilient business. Combined with our long-term battery metals exposure through Atex, Firering now offers a unique blend of cash flow, growth, and future-facing strategic relevance.
On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank our shareholders for their continued belief in our vision and our operational teams in Zambia and Côte d’Ivoire for their commitment and execution. We move into the second half of 2025 with confidence, momentum, and clarity of purpose, and I look forward to updating the market as we continue to build Firering into a high impact, diversified player in the industrial and critical minerals sphere
Youval Rasin
Non-Executive Chairman
30 June 2025
