Tan-Tan – Canadian mining company Steadright Critical Minerals has cancelled an agreement to acquire a 50% stake in a Moroccan company holding quarrying, crushing, and grinding assets, while leaving open the possibility of renegotiating the transaction.
Steadright announced the cancellation on October 6 as part of its first-quarter financial disclosure. The agreement, initially announced in June, involved the acquisition of half of the Moroccan company’s shares from Maghreb Atlas Trading Sarl and Mining & Research Company.
Under the original deal, Steadright was to issue 5 million of its shares to each seller, valued at 20 Canadian cents per share, and pay €700,000 into a lawyer’s trust account. The company had also agreed to contribute up to CAD 480,000 toward repairs and upgrades to the site and equipment.
Steadright did not give a specific reason for cancelling the agreement in its October announcement. It said, however, that it intends to enter into new negotiations for the transaction.
The cancelled deal was intended to give Steadright direct access to crushing and grinding equipment that could support its mineral exploration and development activities in Morocco. When the agreement was announced in June, the company said the equipment and quarry were strategically located in relation to its Moroccan mineral assets and could provide processing capacity during exploration and development.
Read also: Steadright Signs MOU to Acquire Historic Polymetallic Mine in Morocco’s High Atlas
The development does not mark Steadright’s withdrawal from Morocco. The Canadian company remains focused on the country’s critical-minerals sector and has several Moroccan interests, including the TitanBeach Titanium Project, covering more than 192 square kilometers, and the Copper Valley Project. It also holds a binding memorandum of understanding concerning the historic Goundafa Mine in Morocco.
But the company has encountered setbacks in several Moroccan transactions this year. In June, Steadright cancelled a separate agreement to acquire an 80% interest in Moroccan mining company EXTERRA Mining & Exploration SARL, citing incomplete and insufficient financial records that did not meet the disclosure requirements for the transaction.
Steadright had described Morocco as a key focus for its strategy of advancing exploration and historical mining projects in the critical-minerals sector. Its Moroccan portfolio has included projects involving titanium, copper, and polymetallic mineralization.
The latest cancellation comes as Morocco seeks to expand investment in its mining industry and position itself as a supplier of minerals considered important to industrial and energy-transition supply chains.
