Flinders chasing $16m

Flinders Mines is seeking to raise $16 million to advance its Pilbara iron ore project, with the company needing to fund further work to progress the mine to feasibility stage.

Finders, which recently moved from Adelaide to West Perth, will issue around 290 million shares at a price of 5.5 cents each, according to documents released to the ASX today.

The entitlement offer will be on a one share for 11 ordinary shares basis.

In late March, the company released a strategic review that found more information was needed on metallurgy and mine planning to confirm an operation would be able to hit optimal production.

That optimal rate was about 45 million tonnes per annum, the review said, with grades of up to 59 per cent iron ore.

Mine life would be 14 years.

Before that production can commence, however, the company will need to lock in an agreement to move ore to port.

The likely option will be with Balla Balla Infrastructure Group, controlled by New Zealand private business Todd Corporation.

Todd Corporation owns about 53 per cent of Flinders and is the majority shareholder.

Balla Balla signed a state agreement in January to build a port and rail link through the central Pilbara, which the company estimated would cost around $6.6 billion.

Shares in Flinders Mines were up 6.3 per cent to 17 cents each at the time of writing.

Also today, West Perth-based copper-gold hopeful Auris Minerals completed a $2.5 million raising to fund exploration at a series of tenements in the Bryah Basin region near Meekatharra.

About half of that was sourced from Investmet, led by mining investor Michael Fotios, while the remaining $1.3 million was through brokerage firm Hartleys.