Kendrick Resources
The Start of Something Special?
Good Morning Team.
Back in March 2024, I covered Kendrick Resources when it was sitting on a market capitalisation of two potatoes and a carrot.
The conclusion?
‘A small non-core position to tuck away for the longer-term may be a good idea.’
The thesis at the time was vanadium.
Specifically, the Airijoki project in northern Sweden — a JORC-resourced asset with virtually no competition for investor attention in a metal that almost nobody in the junior mining space was touching.
The nickel assets were collateral damage from Indonesia’s dirty nickel flood. The management pedigree looked strong for the size of the company. And the market capitalisation was so absurdly low that it almost didn’t matter what the catalyst was — almost any substantive news could have re-rated it.
For reference, that vanadium optionality hasn’t gone away. Airijoki still hosts its 44.3 million tonne inferred resource. The Board still believes there is potential to add 50% more ore to that inventory.
The processing fundamentals remain sound, and the final product grades above the international average. But the reality remains that vanadium’s energy storage boom has arrived more slowly than the industry anticipated, and sitting on a Scandinavian development project with high maintenance costs and soft commodity fundamentals is not a strategy for value creation.
So Colin Bird did what Colin Bird does.
He went hunting in southern Africa.
What he found — and what Kendrick now controls — is a rare earth project that, on current drilling data, benchmarks its grade against the world’s premier rare earth mines.
At a market capitalisation now approaching £9 million, the gap between what the market is pricing and what the ground data is suggesting is extraordinary.
With the caveat the rise so far has been explosive - more could be to come.
Why The Pivot Makes Sense
The Board’s strategic logic deserves credit.
Vanadium fundamentals have softened. Nickel was effectively uninvestable - though with Hormuz closed, this will change.
Scandinavian project development — permitting timelines, labour costs, operating costs — is expensive by global standards.
Meanwhile, the two men running Kendrick have spent the better part of four decades working in southern Africa. Colin Bird founded Kiwara Resources and sold its Zambian copper asset to First Quantum for $260 million in 2009.
Managing Director Martyn Churchouse holds an MSc from the Camborne School of Mines and has decades of African exploration behind him.
The Board articulated the logic clearly in its 2025 interim results: given their extensive resource project experience in southern Africa and the relative cost of developing projects there compared to Scandinavia, it is in the best interests of shareholders to seek new resource project opportunities where the Board has genuine expertise.
The first southern Africa move was the Bluefox copper exploration licence in northwest Zambia, acquired mid-2025. The licence sits within the External Fold and Thrust Belt — the same geological corridor that hosts Tenke Fungurume, an 8 million tonne contained copper behemoth, and the Mutanda mines across the border in the DRC.
For anyone familiar with Bird’s history in exactly this part of the world, that acquisition alone was worth noting.
But Bluefox is now firmly in the background.
Enter Bonya: Namibian Rare Earth Project
In January 2026, Kendrick announced a binding and exclusive option over two Namibian exploration licences — EPL4458 and EPL6691 — covering the Teufelskuppe and Keishohe rare earth carbonatite complexes.
The licences are located approximately 55km southwest of the town of Aus and (critically for future development economics) around 65km from the deepwater port of Lüderitz.
Geography matters in mining. Access to a deepwater port at that distance is a big advantage for any future export operation.
By 23 February, the option had been exercised and a definitive agreement signed with Bonya Exploration Pty Namibia.
Kendrick holds a 70% interest in the licences.
The consideration structure consist of $300,000 cash plus 22 million ordinary shares, with a further $500,000 and 3 million shares contingent on an 18-month licence extension.
For what the ground data is beginning to suggest is a potentially world class rare earth system, that entry cost is very low.
On signing, Kendrick inherited a substantial historical database: channel samples, diamond drill holes, unassayed core, geophysical surveys, trenching records and basic metallurgical test work.
The previous licence holder had already done significant work - but perhaps the key (and under-reported) feature of this project is that the principal channel sampling results from Teufelskuppe had already been independently reviewed and published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal — Geological Magazine, Volume 160, 2023, authored by Marlow and Palmer.
The fact that the sampling program has been through academic peer review and published in open access provides a solid layer of third-party validation.
The Numbers
The historical data inherited by Kendrick at Teufelskuppe is, by any measure, strong.
Across 295 whole-rock channel samples collected across 26 hectares, the average Total Rare Earth Oxide grade is 3.12 wt%.
That average, on its own, would place it ahead of most rare earth projects in the world. But then consider the grade distribution.
The central zone — the calciocarbonatites — averages 4.47 wt% TREO across 54 samples. The dyke stockwork averages 4.18 wt% across 45 samples. Less than 10% of all samples returned below 2.0 wt% TREO. Half of all samples exceeded 2.8 wt% TREO.
These are not cherry-picked intercepts but statistical distribution across an entire systematic channel sampling program.
Then there is the question of which rare earth elements are actually present — because not all rare earths are created equal.
For perspective, the market for rare earths is effectively bifurcated.
On one side you have the heavy rare earths, which are valuable but often found in lower concentrations.
On the other, you have the light rare earths — and within that group, two elements currently sit at the absolute centre of global industrial demand: Neodymium (Nd) and Praseodymium (Pr).
These are the elements used to manufacture the high-intensity permanent magnets that go into electric vehicle motors, wind turbine generators and advanced defence systems. They are the rare earths that the United States, the European Union, Japan and the United Kingdom have specifically identified as critical to national security and the energy transition.
At Teufelskuppe, Nd and Pr together account for an average of approximately 25% by weight of the total rare earth pool.
On a 4% average grade project, that translates to roughly 1.0 wt% combined Nd and Pr oxide — a figure that, as will become clear, puts the asset in elite company.
The neighbouring Keishohe complex adds further scale to the picture. KH has been less intensively explored, but 14 diamond drill holes and systematic channel sampling across an area of 1,500 by 600 metres have returned an average grade of 1.54 wt% TREO.
Mineralisation is dominated by pale yellow REE fluorocarbonates — the same mineral group that dominates at the primary asset — and the complex hosts multiple cone sheets, dykes and sills offering scope for a substantial resource in its own right.
Across both assets, approximately 95% of the total rare earth content sits within fluorocarbonate minerals, and Kendrick’s technical team believes this mineralogy is amenable to processing via established industry methods.
The uranium concentrations are also low relative to carbonatites elsewhere globally — an important point, because elevated uranium is one of the key factors that can complicate rare earth processing economics and create regulatory headaches.
Drill Results
Phase II drilling commenced very recently, with Kendrick selecting drill collars based on a detailed review of the historical database and targeting all eight defined mineralised bodies at Teufelskuppe.
This week, the company released assay results for the first drill hole — TWDD001, drilled on carbonatite body 1A to a final depth of 80.66 metres.
This hole was drilled on previously unassayed core from Bonya’s earlier programme, meaning Kendrick inherited the physical core and sent it for assay on acquisition.
Hence the speed.
The results exceeded expectations.
The headline intercept is 8.14 wt% TREO over 21.16 metres from 59.5 metres depth.
Within that interval, grades peak at 10.7 wt% TREO.
Critically, across that entire 21-metre run, grades never drop below 6.0 wt% TREO. The hole ends in mineralisation at 6.09 wt% — meaning the drill simply ran out of hole before the mineralisation ran out of grade.
Total mineralised intervals across the 80.66-metre hole amount to 50.66 metres.
The average TREO grade across all mineralised intervals in the hole is 4.18 wt%, while the average combined Nd and Pr oxide grade is approximately 1.0 wt%.
Those two numbers are where the benchmarking conversation becomes compelling.
Benchmarking
Kendrick has published a benchmarking table in its drill results announcement, and it is worth your consideration.
Mountain Pass, USA — the only significant operating rare earth mine in the western hemisphere, owned by MP Materials, a company that recently attracted substantial US government attention as a domestic critical minerals supplier — mines at 7.06 wt% TREO from an 18.9 million tonne resource. Its combined Nd/Pr grade is 1.08 wt%.
Mt Weld, Australia — owned by Lynas Rare Earths, one of the world’s largest rare earth producers outside China — mines at 6.4 wt% TREO from a 32 million tonne resource. Its combined Nd/Pr grade is 1.50 wt%. Also a very recent beneficiary of US investment.
These are the two benchmark producing mines against which all serious rare earth projects are measured.
Below them sit the projects under construction: Longonjo in Angola at 3.04 wt% TREO and Nolans in Australia at 2.60 wt% TREO. Then come the resource upgrade projects: Tanbreez in Greenland at 0.55 wt% TREO. And at the bottom of the table, Phalaborwa in South Africa at 0.44 wt% TREO, currently at Definitive Feasibility Study stage.
Teufelskuppe, on current drill data, sits at 4.18 wt% TREO — ahead of every project in construction or development on this table, and behind only the two premier producing mines in the world.
Its 1.0 wt% combined Nd/Pr grade matches Mountain Pass almost exactly, and trails only Mt Weld among operating mines globally.
The companies on this list are valued at billions of US dollars. Kendrick, controlling a project that on current drill data benchmarks its grade against both of them, is valued at approximately £9 million.
Now, the caveats are important.
The resource size is unknown.
The project is at resource definition stage.
There is an enormous amount of work between here and production.
We are very, very early stage.
But the grade is established, the peer-reviewed historical data provides unusual confidence and the drilling has just confirmed that the surface grades continue at depth with consistency.
The question of scale — how many millions of tonnes sit within these carbonatite complexes — is precisely what the current program is designed to answer.
Strategic Opportunity: Sale, JV or Build?
Rare earth supply chain security has moved from a niche industrial concern to a matter of explicit government policy across the western world in a very short period of time.
Thanks China.
The United States has the Inflation Reduction Act and a series of executive actions targeting domestic and allied-nation critical mineral supply. The European Union has the Critical Raw Materials Act, while the UK has its own critical minerals strategy.
Japan has been investing in rare earth supply chain security for closing in on two decades following China’s 2010 export restrictions.
Every single one of these policy frameworks identifies Neodymium and Praseodymium — KEN’s dominant valuable elements — as priority materials. The permanent magnet supply chain, currently dominated almost entirely by China, is the single most discussed critical minerals vulnerability in western defence and energy transition planning.
Against that backdrop, a project sitting at 4.18 wt% TREO with 1.0 wt% combined Nd/Pr, peer-reviewed historical data, active drilling, a fast-track approach to Preliminary Economic Assessment, and a 70% interest available for $300,000 cash entry is the kind of asset that major mining companies, sovereign wealth funds, government-backed strategic investors, and specialist rare earth developers may now be watching very closely.
The pathway to value realisation here does not necessarily require Kendrick to build a mine.
The three most plausible near-term scenarios are, in order (imho):
a trade sale of the project or the Company outright to a larger entity that wants to control a tier-one rare earth asset in a stable jurisdiction
a joint venture or strategic partnership with a rare earth producer, processor or government-backed vehicle that wants assured supply of Nd/Pr into its supply chain
a step-by-step resource definition and PEA process that progressively re-rates the Company’s market capitalisation as the scale of the project becomes clearer
Namibia as a jurisdiction is an important part of this calculation.
It’s a stable, mining-friendly democracy with an established regulatory framework, a track record of attracting major mining investment — Namibia Custom Smelters, Rössing Uranium, Husab Uranium — and, as noted, direct access to the deepwater port at Lüderitz.
Vanadium Floor
It would be wrong to write Airijoki out of the story entirely, and for those who took the original position based on the vanadium thesis, that optionality remains intact.
The Airijoki project in northern Sweden still hosts its 44.3 million tonne inferred resource at 0.4% V2O5, with the Directors maintaining their conviction that a further 50% of ore inventory could be added.
The processing fundamentals — 13.3% magnetite mass recovery, concentrate grading 1.7% V2O5 — remain sound. The grand plan of a centralised processing plant in Finland to produce V2O5 flake or VRFB electrolytes for the Scandinavian energy storage market has not been abandoned.
Vanadium demand for redox flow batteries is still forecast to grow substantially. And the technology’s advantages for static energy storage — non-flammable electrolyte, 25-year lifespan and unlimited cycling — are real and increasingly well understood by grid operators.
The timing has simply been slower than the industry anticipated. Possibly, analysts thought that the UK’s £1 billion in wasted wind energy every year was a problem that needed solving sooner.
The UK isn’t alone in this.
For now, Airijoki sits as a free option on a commodity recovery. And in a portfolio context, it provides a degree of commodity diversification that most rare earth plays simply do not offer.
If vanadium fundamentals improve materially — and the structural case for them doing so over a five-to-ten year horizon remains compelling — Airijoki has the potential to become a meaningful contributor to Kendrick’s value in its own right.
The Bottom Line
In March 2024, Kendrick Resources was a vanadium nanocap with good management, interesting assets and almost no liquidity. The case for a small non-core position rested on the quality of the team, the scarcity value of the assets and the asymmetry of the market capitalisation.
Today, Kendrick is a £9 million company.
That re-rating has happened. But relative to what the ground data is now suggesting about the Bonya rare earth project, £9 million looks like the beginning of a re-rating story rather than the end of one.
The resource size is the outstanding question, and it is a big one. But with eight carbonatite bodies at Teufelskuppe still to be drilled, a second complex at Keishohe of considerable size, and a second rig about to be deployed for reconnaissance drilling across both, the answer to that question is approaching faster than the market appears to currently appreciate.