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Elemental Minerals nets further A$3.25M for potash exploration

Last updated: 05:09 19 Dec 2012 GMT, First published: 06:09 19 Dec 2012 GMT

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Elemental Minerals (ASX: ELM, TSX: ELM) has raised A$3.25 million from its recent share purchase plan, which builds on the A$14 million placement it completed late last month.

The company received applications for 8.4 million shares at $0.385 per share, the same issue price as the placement.

Iain Macpherson, chief executive officer, commented: “I’m very pleased with the vote of confidence we’ve been given by the market with this successful raising and I’d like to thank shareholders for their continued support as displayed by the strong level of uptake of the SPP. 

“The additional working capital will strengthen Elemental’s balance sheet and enable it to continue to advance the development of our project while continuing to assess alternatives open to us.”

The funds raised from both the placement and the share purchase plan will be used to advance Elemental’s 93%-owned Sintoukola Potash Project on the Republic of Congo coastline. 

Specifically, the funds will be used for exploration and resource definition, Feasibility Studies and Surveys, operational costs and general working capital purposes. 

Further capital will be required to complete the Bankable Feasibility Study, with Elemental considering a range of capital alternatives.

A Pre-Feasibility Study conducted on the project has indicated an after-tax NPV10 of US$2.97 billion (A$2.8 billion) and internal rate of return of 29.3%.

Production cash costs are tipped to be in the lowest quartile of global production costs at US$79.71 per tonne free-on-board.

There is also the potential to reduce the up-front capital costs by up to US$530 million with a corresponding increase in life of mine operating costs. 

Sintoukola is expected to produce around 2 million tonnes per annum of muriate of potash from a conventional underground mine with a 23 year life of mine.

The project is located in a region with established infrastructure and is 90 kilometres from a deepwater port and industrial hub at Pointe Noire.

The potential of the project has not been lost on the broker community, with Dundee Securities placing a 12-month share price target of C$1.30 (A$1.25) on the stock last month, which is over three times the last traded price.

Providing further support for Elemental's operations, Canadian investment bank Northern Securities placed a more bullish $2.70 price target on the company three months ago.


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