Aust Mines to raise $6m for project work

Perth-based explorer Australian Mines has announced plans to raise up to $6.3 million from investors to fund ongoing work at its Sconi and Flemington scandium-cobalt projects.

Aust Mines raised $4.3 million through a combination of a placement and convertible notes issue to investors introduced by UK-based Arlington Group Asset Management, priced at 0.8 cents a share.

It also plans to raise a further $2 million by way of an entitlement offer at the same price.

“With scandium and cobalt set to play pivotal roles in the rapidly developing electric vehicle industry, Australian Mines finds itself uniquely positioned with two high-quality scandium-cobalt ore bodies in the low-risk mining jurisdiction of Australia,” managing director Benjamin Bell said.

“Using BHP Billiton’s own definition, Australian Mines’ Sconi project is truly a ‘world-class’ deposit, which as BHP puts it, is important to investors because ‘they make lots of money for a long time’ and world-class deposits ‘help launch major mining companies’.

“The scoping study for Flemington, which will be released in the coming weeks, will indicate whether it too falls into the ‘world-class’ category.”

Aust Mines will use the funds raised to complete a definitive feasibility study at Sconi, which it owns in a joint venture with Metallica Minerals, and complete a scoping study at Flemington.

Shares in Aust Mines were 30 per cent higher to 1.3 cents each at the close.