Chase Mining Corporation Ltd (ASX:CML) has surged on completion of the “transformational” acquisition of Green Critical Minerals Pty Ltd, earning the company an 80% interest in the graphite mineral rights contained in the McIntosh Graphite project, the third largest ASX-listed graphite project in Australia.
To finalise the acquisition, GTT Ventures satisfied its commitment by placing the rights issue shortfall balance of $2.36 million, with CML directors contributing about 278,000 via accepting a rights issue entitlement.
Notably, the company is well-funded post-completion of the acquisition, with about $5.1 million in hand to accelerate exploration activities and progress feasibility studies for the development of the McIntosh Graphite project.
What's more, Chase Mining will change its name and ASX ticker to Green Critical Minerals Ltd, ASX: GCM respectively, which will occur shortly.
The market has welcomed the news, with shares trading as high as $0.020, up 66.6% from previous close.
About the McIntosh Project
The McIntosh Graphite project is situated between 40 kilometres and 90 kilometres north to northeast of the town of Halls Creek in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
It is a unique graphite project with extremely low impurities and exceptional “low cost and high yield” downstream processing attributes with the potential to produce high-quality graphite products in a diverse range of premium end-use markets.
The project contains a combined mineral resource estimate of 23.8 million tonnes at 4.45% total contained graphite for 1.1 million tonnes of contained graphite, of which 81% is classified in the higher confidence indicated category.
To date, over 40,000 metres of graphite-targeted drilling has been completed at the project with extensive metallurgical test work completed.
Forward plan
Further project updates are expected shortly following expert consultant reviews and analysis of the recent field trip which successfully identified outcropping graphite at seven target areas.
Sixty-five rock chip samples were collected and submitted to the ALS (Perth) laboratory for analysis, with assays expected shortly.
The recruitment process for an experienced management team is in the final advanced stages with multiple strong candidates shortlisted and the company looks forward to updating the market on these appointments.