George Bauk says the raising allows Northern Minerals to deliver on plans to produce dysprosium from Browns Range next year.

Juniors raise $14m

Wednesday, 11 October, 2017 - 15:10
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Aspiring lithium miner Lepidico has attracted backing from Galaxy Resources as part of a $7 million capital raising, while Northern Minerals and Musgrave Resources have tapped their respective investors for a combined $7 million.

Lithium miner Galaxy will subscribe for $2.9 million in Lepidico shares by way of a private placement priced at 1 cent a share.

Lepidico also plans to raise a further $4 million through a one-for-six entitlement offer at the same price as the placement, with Galaxy to also participate in that component of the raising.

Post-raising, Galaxy will own a 12 per cent stake in Lepidico.

The funds raised will be used to progress development of its L-Max feasibility study, through to a final investment decision, plus fund further exploration activities.

“We are pleased to support Lepidico as it looks to expedite the commercialisation of its LMax technology, both financially as well as offering the benefit of our technical capabilities, industry contacts and market expertise,” Galaxy managing director Anthony Tse said.

“Our alliance with Lepidico will provide us with the capability to also potentially evaluate significant mica feedstocks in future.

“L-Max is an exciting technology and we look forward leveraging it to unlock value, to capitalise on the ongoing growth opportunities in the lithium sector.”

Lepidico managing director Joe Walsh said the company welcomed Galaxy onto its share register.

“The financing package means that Lepidico is fully funded for the completion of the Phase 1 L-Max plant feasibility study and provides sufficient additional capital to expand the company’s mineral resource definition program, with the object of delineating sufficient material to support a pre-feasibility study for a full-scale plant,” he said.

CPS Capital Group is partially underwriting the entitlement offer. Bacchus Capital Advisers is acting as financial adviser to Lepidico.

Musgrave, meanwhile, has placed 46 million shares at 6.2 cents each to raise $2.85 million, and has launched a share purchase plan to raise a further $750,000.

The price represents a 9 per cent discount to the gold hopeful’s five-day volume-weighted average price.

The proceeds will be used to fund drilling programs at its Cue project, and for working capital needs.

Veritas Securities acted as lead manager to the raising.

Northern Minerals has meanwhile tapped an undisclosed sophisticated investor for $3 million, priced at 12 cents a share, to fund further development of the pilot plant at its Browns Range heavy rare earths project.

The placement of 25 million shares will partially replace a shortfall in a previous placement by AMC Securities, which was unable to be completed due to issues transferring funds out of China.

“We are pleased to have attracted investor interest for the placement, which allows us to deliver on our plans to produce dysprosium from Browns Range in 2018,” Northern chief executive George Bauk said.