Aeternum options 51% stake in Cameroon cobalt-nickel project
Aeternum Resources (OTC: AETN) has acquired an option to purchase a 51% stake in American Renaissance Minerals (ARM), the vehicle advancing the Nkamouna Cobalt-Nickel-Manganese Project in southern Cameroon. The option was acquired from Manaslu LLC in exchange for 50 million shares of common stock and two million shares of Series B preferred stock, each carrying the voting weight of 40 common shares.
Nkamouna carries a historical mineral resource estimate of 323 million tonnes grading 0.21% cobalt, 0.61% nickel and 1.26% manganese across measured, indicated and inferred categories. Aeternum and ARM caution that this estimate was prepared by a prior owner and does not meet the current requirements of SEC Regulation S-K subpart 1300; a qualified person has not classified it as a current resource estimate and no assurance is given that further work will confirm it.
The deal and project background
The project was fully permitted between 2003 and 2025 under Geovic Cameroon Plc, but funding shortfalls and an expiring permit led to its withdrawal in February 2025. ARM subsequently licensed the entire historical technical database from Geovic Ltd in January 2026, including the geological database, feasibility study, metallurgical testwork and environmental baseline studies. Under that agreement, Geovic released all claims over the project, clearing the way for Cameroon's Ministry of Mines and the state mining company, the Société Nationale des Mines, to consider issuing a new, unencumbered permit.
The project covers approximately 1,650 square kilometres and envisages open-cut mining followed by on-site concentration to produce an exportable cobalt-nickel-manganese concentrate. Processing ore at the mine rather than shipping it raw is a condition of Cameroon's Mining Code of December 2023 and is consistent with growing in-country value-addition requirements across Francophone Africa.
Aeternum chief executive Josua Oosthuizen said the project "has absorbed three decades of technical work and has never been brought into production," and that the company's experience designing and installing mineral-processing plants in Nigeria gives the combined team "a credible route to development." Aeternum expects its Nigerian gravity separation plant to reach commissioning in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Market and strategic context
Cobalt and nickel are both designated critical minerals by the United States government. The US imports roughly three quarters of the cobalt it consumes, and outside recycled material is almost entirely dependent on imported nickel. The Democratic Republic of Congo supplies approximately three quarters of world cobalt mine output, with China dominating refined production; Indonesia, with significant Chinese-owned capacity, now dominates primary nickel supply. Those geographic concentrations have become an active concern for US industrial and defence policy, with multiple agencies pursuing supply-chain diversification under the federal critical minerals strategy.
Aeternum describes its development of Nkamouna as consistent with advocacy support from the United States government for commercially led projects of strategic interest overseas, though it notes that support does not constitute an official endorsement of the company or the transaction.
Regulatory and execution risk
A number of material risks remain outstanding. A new mining permit has not yet been granted, and the timeline for Cameroon's regulatory process is not disclosed. The historical resource estimate requires reclassification to current standards before it can be used in a feasibility decision. No financing arrangements for project construction have been announced, and Aeternum is itself a small OTC-listed issuer whose capital base is not disclosed in the release.
The broader critical minerals space has attracted substantial interest from Western governments and investors since 2022, with a range of junior and mid-tier miners pursuing assets outside Chinese-influenced supply chains in Africa, Latin America and Australia. Buyers and investors will be watching for a confirmed new permit, updated resource estimate and a disclosed financing path as the principal near-term milestones for Nkamouna.