$10m capital raising for Greenland

Greenland Minerals and Energy is set to raise $10.25 million through a share placement with the funds to be spent on technical optimisation and completion of permitting for its Kvanefjeld rare earths project.

Subiaco-based Greenland has received firm commitments for $9 million from Asian and Australian institutional investors while major shareholder Shenghe will retain their 12.5 per cent stake by investing $1.25 million.

Shenghe is a rare earths company providing technical and industry knowledge to Greenland.

The shares will be sold at 9 cents each, a 15.9 per cent discount on the company’s 30-day volume-weighted average price, with Ashanti Capital acting as lead manager to the placement.

Funds raised in the placement will allow for optimisation work and feasibility studies at the Kvanefjeld project.

The company said based on an ore reserve of 108 million tonnes the project has an initial mine life of 37 years.

Greenland managing director John Mair said the company was pleased with the support received from the placement.

“We’re well placed to roll out optimisation work through 2018 that aims to have Kvanefjeld positioned as the lowest-cost, largest capacity rare earth project outside of China, with the longest projected mine life,” he said

“In association with Shenghe, we’ll be looking to develop a complete path to market and project finance strategy.

“The demand outlook for rare earths continues to strengthen creating an optimal window to position Kvanefjeld for the development phase.”

Shares in Greenland were flat at 12 cents at 1pm AEDT.