Zanaga Iron Ore Co Ltd (AIM:ZIOC) issued a series of announcements on Monday alongside its prelims - chief among them a new financing structure with Shard Merchant Capital (SMC), which provides access to funding through a relatively low-cost structure that minimises dilution.
In a separate announcement, investors were told SMC has sold 14.38m shares in ZIOC at 5.25p. At the same time, Glencore, the mining giant and ZIOC shareholder, has subscribed to $300,000 of new shares, while chairman, Clifford Elphick, bought $20,000 worth of stock.
All of the foregoing will allow ZIOC to repay the outstanding tranche of a loan owed to Glencore, due at the end of the month.
The results statement, meanwhile, largely focused on events outside the reporting period; namely the the new feasibility study. This would see the company turn the Zanaga Project into first a 12 million tonne per year operation generating high-grade pellets, moving eventually to 30 million tonnes. This process was carried out by technical experts at a Chinese engineering firm.
"Following the streamlining of ownership and control of the Zanaga Project in 2022, the updated FS [feasibility study] now enables ZIOC to engage with new strategic entities interested in participating in the Zanaga Project going forward," Elphick said.
The loss before tax for the 12 months ended December 31 was $2.7 million, down from $8.1 million at the same point a year earlier.