Ironbark raises $5m for Citronen Zinc Project

Subiaco-based zinc explorer, Ironbark Ltd, has raised $5 million through a placement of 7 million shares at 71 cents each with Africa's largest banking group, Standard Bank.

Ironbark said the additional funds would be applied to expedite the development of its flagship Citronen Zinc Project in Greenland.

In addition, Ironbark and Standard Bank are discussing a number of strategic options and a possible role for Standard Bank as financial advisor.

Ironbark said the Citronen Zinc Project had outstanding exploration potential with mineralisation boundaries not defined by current drilling.

The partnership with Standard Bank is a significant advancement towards Ironbark positioning itself as a major base metal producer.

The project is wholly owned by Ironbark, and was recently upgraded to 72.5 Mt @ 4.2 per cent zinc and 0.5 per cent lead and is now JORC and National Instrument 43-101 compliant, with the majority of the resource now in the indicated category.

While the company considers that the reported resource may only be part of a larger system, the current resource is considered to have compelling development potential that warrants immediate evaluation.

Ironbark has recently engaged Ausenco to perform a pre-feasibility study to advance the Citronen Zinc Project towards becoming a major zinc mining operation.

The pre feasibility study is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2008.

Standard Bank is the largest banking group in Africa measured by market capitalisation with representation in 40 countries across the globe.