The flood of emerging iron ore juniors going to the market for funds has grown stronger with iron ore junior Aztec Resources Ltd announcing a $42.3 million rights issue to finance part of its 53 million tonne Koolan Island iron ore project off the Kimberley coast. The issue has been fully underwritten by LCS Capital Pty Ltd and Grange Securities Ltd, which is also a joint lead manager with Cartesian Capital Pty Ltd. For eligible shareholders, the shares will be issued at 17 cents each on the basis of one new share and option for every two held. Aztec completed a bankable feasibility study for the project in August, forecasting a total capital cost of $108 million for the former BHP project. This would allow for an annual production rate of about four million tonnes a year, giving the project a mine life of nine years. Aztec has in place MOUs to sell an average total of about 3.4mt a year. Koolan Island is on track to come into production by the end of next year, according to Aztec chairman Ian Burston.
