South Star Battery Metals Corp. (TSX-V:STS, OTCQB:STSBF) CEO Richard Pearce said the company was excited to close an oversubscribed $6.7 million financing to accelerate its Santa Cruz graphite project towards construction.
"We are very excited to get the oversubscribed, private placement successfully closed and be on very solid financial footing, while also executing on our strategy of near-term production with scalable graphite assets in Tier 1 jurisdictions at a critical time when the global supply chains require more graphite products sourced outside of China,” Pearce said in a statement.
South Star is aiming to produce around 5,000 tonnes of graphite concentrates in 2024 and 13,000 tonnes in 2025 from Santa Cruz.
The company issued 9,301,532 shares at a price of C$0.72 per share, resulting in total gross proceeds of C$6,697,119.
Additionally, the firm said it had extended the current mineral leases and surface agreements at its US project BamaStar for an additional two-year period beyond the initial five-year term of the original agreement.
The company is set to start a preliminary economic assessment for BamaStar and the value-add plant in the southeast corridor, with results expected in the next few months.
“We had excellent meetings recently with the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, as well as the Louisiana Economic Development Agency,” Pearce added.
“2024 is going to be an exciting year for South Star as we become the first new graphite producer in the Americas this century."