Arafura Rare Earths secures $159 million to boost Nolans project

Australia’s Arafura Rare Earths said on Wednesday it had executed binding agreements with Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau and Export Finance Australia for equity subscriptions totalling A$230 million ($158.61 million).

Germany’s state-owned development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), on behalf of the German Raw Materials Fund, will subscribe for equity worth 50 million euros or A$84 million.

Export Finance Australia (EFA), under the Australian government’s A$5 billion Critical Minerals Facility, will subscribe for shares worth $100 million or A$146 million.

Issue price per share payable by KfW and EFA under their respective agreements is A$0.2447, representing a 12.6% discount to Arafura Rare Earths’ last close.

Proceeds from the equity raise will be used to develop the Nolans project in the Northern Territory, the first combined rare earths mine and refinery in the region.

The funding is part of a Western push to develop rare earths supply chains with international partners outside of top producer China.

Nolans’ previous funding package includes a A$481 million equity raise completed in the final quarter of 2025 and a binding term sheet executed with the country’s National Reconstruction Fund Corporation for A$200 million of convertible notes.

Arafura plans to supply from its Nolans Project in the Northern Territory 4,440 metric tons a year of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide, a key rare earth magnet material from the second half of 2029, representing around 4% of global supply.

($1 = 1.4501 Australian dollars)

(By Sherin Sunny; Editing by Anil D’Silva)