Lynas completes $40m capital raising

Rare earths miner Lynas Corporation has raised about $40 million minus costs through a heavily discounted share purchase plan and placement.

Lynas raised about $30 million through a share purchase plan at an issue price of 11.3 cents per share, which represents a 33.5 per cent discount to the company’s last closing price.

An additional $12 million was raised through the placement of about 106 million ordinary shares to institutional and sophisticated investors for the same heavily discounted price.

Lynas will use the proceeds to ramp up production at its Advanced Materials Plant in Malaysia.

Lynas chairman Nicholas Curtis said the company will work to achieve positive operational cash flow at the LAMP in Malaysia.

“We are working constructively with financers to restructure our debt repayment obligations to further solidify the company’s financial profile through the build-up and retention of operating cash,” he said.

Lynas owns the Mt Weld ore mine, located about 35km from Laverton in Western Australia.

Lynas shares fell by 19.41 per cent to 13.7 cents at 12:40pm WST.