LONDON and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mkango Resources Ltd. (AIM/TSX-V: MKA) (the “Company” or “Mkango”) is pleased to announce the launch and provide further details of the Innovate UK grant funded project, “Rare-Earth Recycling for E-Machines” (“RaRE” or the “Project”) in which HyProMag Limited (“HyProMag”) is a partner. Mkango’s subsidiary, Maginito Limited (“Maginito”), holds a 25% equity interest in HyProMag.

RaRE will for the first time establish an end to end supply chain to incorporate recycled rare earth magnets into electric vehicles, whereby recycled magnets will be built into an ancillary electric motor to ultimately support the development of a commercial ancillary motor suite.

Fundamental to the Project is a patented process for extracting and demagnetising neodymium iron boron (“NdFeB”) alloy powders from magnets embedded in scrap and redundant equipment named HPMS (Hydrogen Processing of Magnet Scrap), originally developed within the Magnetic Materials Group (“MMG”) at the University of Birmingham (“UoB”) and subsequently licenced to HyProMag. In addition to HyProMag and UoB, the Project features a strong set of partners with complementary expertise:

Advanced Electric Machines Research Limited – extensive experience in designing motors for customers including Airbus and Tevva Motors

Bentley Motors Limited – an iconic automotive brand and part of the VW Group, one of the world’s largest car manufacturers

Intelligent Lifecycle Solutions Limited – a global leader in the processing of electronics waste working with Fortune 500 companies and UK government agencies

Unipart Powertrain Applications Limited – one of the largest UK based Tier 1 automotive partners and a recognised volume automotive supplier able to supply globally The total budget for RaRE is £2.6 million, of which Innovate UK will fund £1.9 million with Project partners funding the £0.7 million balance. HyProMag’s contribution will be fully funded from the £300,000 investment made by Maginito in January 2020.