Walkabout Resources Ltd (ASX:WKT) has raised $1.29 million through an oversubscribed placement of shares to sophisticated and professional investors.
The funding will be used for a 1,500 metre drill program in July at the company's 70% owned Lindi Jumbo Graphite Project in south-eastern Tanzania.
The drilling plans to upgrade and extend the current resource ahead of finalising a mining license application for Lindi.
Lindi is the flagship asset in Walkabout's graphite and lithium demand driven commodity portfolio.
Allan Mulligan, managing director, commented: "“We are delighted at the strong response to our placement.
"We believe momentum and market understanding of our right-sized, low risk strategy is growing.”
Placement details
A total of 258,424,471 fully paid ordinary shares were issued at $0.005 to raise $1,292,122.
The July drill program will allow the company to upgrade and extend the Lindi JORC resource.
Data will also be collected for further studies, mine design and metallurgical test work.
This will allow Walkabout to finalise its environmental impact assessment, finalise the mining licence application and upgrade the level 1 mine design study to the level of full feasibility.
Lindi Jumbo Graphite Project
The company has a 70% interest in a total exploration area of 325 square kilometres in southeast Tanzania.
Walkabout is fast-tracking the project development of Lindi Jumbo to commence a surface mining and processing operation at the site.
Recent test work at Lindi produced a super jumbo, high margin graphite concentrate containing up to 25.7% super jumbo flakes at a grade of 95.6% total graphitic content.
These verified results place the project in a high class of revenue per tonne of saleable concentrate.
Lithium
Walkabout is now a lithium explorer after receiving approval for three lithium license applications in Tanzania.
The approvals secure Walkabout's new dual lithium-graphite focus.
The lithium portfolio is set to grow, as three prospecting licenses have been filed in a known lithium-spodumene setting in Namibia.
Analysis
The oversubscribed placement shows the market's support of Walkabout's dual graphite-lithium focus.
Graphite and lithium are key raw materials required in the production of lithium-ion batteries.
Recently, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) revealed that its battery mega-factory would be producing ahead of schedule in Q4 2016.
These comments followed recent test work results from Lindi that will allow Walkabout to produce a highly sort after, high margin, graphite concentrate.
Drilling is set to commence in July at Lindi and news flow regarding the company's lithium projects is expected shortly.
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