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Jubilee Platinum (LON:JLP) remains on-track with its plan to bring its two platinum surface projects into operation as it revealed it had raised £2.442 million in a share placing.
The group placed around 71.8mln shares at 3.4 pence each - a premium of 3.3% to the 30 day weighted average price as at yesterday (Aug 4).
The combined funds from this placing together with the £12.9mln debt funding, on which advanced talks are taking place, along with the previously reported sale of the group's non-platinum operational assets, will provide the necessary means for the design, construction, commissioning and working capital during the ramp-up phase of the South African projects.
Last year, Jubilee secured a contract to process material at ASA Metal’s Dilokong chrome mine and it also has a deal with the fourth largest ferrochrome producer in the world - Hernic.
Leon Coetzer, Jubilee's chief executive, said today: "The funding package has placed us on a sound footing to transform Jubilee into a significant PGM producing company. We continue with our mission to acquire similar projects and enlarge the company's production capacity utilising our knowledge and experience to the best interest of our shareholders."
The capital required for building both the surface platinum and chrome beneficiation processing plant is estimated at £13.71 million, while the working capital required to bring the Platinum Surface Projects to operation and to achieve positive earnings is estimated at £3.8 million.
The target is to process 80,000 tons per month of platinum containing surface material delivering an estimated production of 42,000 ounces of PGMs in concentrate per year.
Yesterday, the mines-to-metals firm confirmed it was in advanced talks over a debt funding with a major financial institution and although the funding has received credit approval in principal, there can be no guarantee that it will complete, Jubilee noted.
Speaking to Proactive, Coetzer said the surface projects were robust and could comfortably sustain such a debt level.
"We are fortunate in that the ramp-up to earnings for these type of projects are very short. We're not speaking of a typical mine, where it can take five/ six years or even longer to ramp up to full production," he said.
Such projects, he said, can go from construction to full operation mode within 16 months, adding that therefore the cost of the debt is less because the repayment plan can kick in earlier.
Jubilee shares eased on Wednesday 13.74% 3.925p.