Black Rock Mining Ltd (ASX:BKT) has raised $3 million before costs in an oversubscribed share placement to institutional and sophisticated investors.
The placement comprises over 78 million shares at 3.2 cents per share, which includes the subscription of Black Rock’s directors and management for 15.6 million shares worth $500,000.
Funds raised in the placement will go towards further project development, marketing of Black Rock’s graphite to offtake partners, permitting and mining licence applications as well as general working capital.
‘Well-funded to advance the project’
Black Rock chief executive officer John de Vries said the company was pleased to have received strong market support for the placement.
He said: “[The placement] validates our approach to diligently progressing the Mahenge project through a quality definitive feasibility study (DFS), to be followed by a permitting stage.
“With the placement funds and the existing balance sheet, Black Rock will be well-funded to advance the project through the permitting process.
“We anticipate the completion of the engineering and estimation stage of the DFS this quarter with the final reporting to extend into CY18 Q4.
“Our next objective will be to secure project development permits, and in particular the environmental permit followed by the mining licence.
“We will continue engagement with offtake partners to ensure a smooth transition from permitting to financing and ultimately project construction.”
READ: Black Rock Mining gets positive feedback for Mahenge graphite from potential customers
The placement will be made in one tranche and shares are expected to be allotted on 31 August 2018.
The director allotment is subject to shareholder approval, with a general meeting to be held soon.
Patersons Securities Ltd acted as the sole lead manager to the placement.
Black Rock’s 100%-owned Mahenge Graphite Project is one of the largest JORC-compliant flake graphite resources globally, with 211.9 million tonnes at 7.8% TGC (total graphitic carbon) for 16.6 million tonnes of contained graphite.
The company had released a pre-feasibility study for the project, which considered a three-stage construction to deliver up to 250,000 tonnes per annum of 98.5% graphite concentrate for 31 years.