Northern Minerals staves off Chinese attack as major shareholder aborts attempt to roll the boss

A mysterious Chinese investor has abruptly aborted attempts to overthrow Northern Minerals’ leadership.

The West Perth-based rare earths developer on Tuesday said Beijing-headquartered Vastness Investment Group withdrew its notice requisitioning a shareholders meeting to oust executive chairman Adam Handley.

Vastness, which is Northern Minerals’ largest shareholder with a 7.7 per cent stake, lobbed the notice in January.

It would have been a resolution voted on at an annual general meeting held before June 30 this year.

The AGM had originally been scheduled for November last year but has now been postponed twice after the company referred a series of what it described as “relevant matters” to the Foreign Investment Review Board.

The upcoming meeting will also consider applications made by other Chinese-linked candidates to seize board seats.

One of those candidates, Enping Fu, narrowly missed out on joining the board seat at the last AGM, winning support from 48 per cent of voting shareholders.

This ongoing boardroom showdown marks the latest chapter in a long-running saga of what is thought to be a co-ordinated state-backed campaign to covertly seize control of Northern Minerals.

In June 2024, Treasurer Jim Chalmers ordered five entities thought to be linked to China to sell 613.6 million shares, or 10.4 per cent of Northern Minerals, on national interest grounds.

He had earlier blocked one associated company from increasing its stake in Northern Minerals to 19.9 per cent.

Dr Chalmers in June last year sued one of the five groups targeted by the sell-down order in the Federal Court for defying his edict.

Northern Minerals successfully sought court relief to delay its AGM on the basis that it suspects Dr Chalmers’ orders have still not been complied with.

Northern Minerals’ Browns Range, which is set to produce first concentrate in 2028, contains large volumes of the coveted ‘heavy’ subset of rare earth elements. Heavies have higher atomic weights relative to light rare earths and are far less common.

Browns Range, located 145km south-east of Halls Creek, will also feed Australia’s first integrated rare earths refinery being developed by Iluka Resources in Eneabba.

Northern Minerals is one of a handful of Australian critical mineral companies called out for financial backing under a partnership between the US and Australia struck in October.

The US Export Import Bank is set to provide $US2.2 billion of funding — mainly debt — this financial year to help the companies develop their projects. Some $US230m has been set aside for Northern Minerals.