PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Coal developer Atrum Coal has raised A$8-million in a share placement to institutional and sophisticated investors, to supplement existing facilities.

The shares were placed at a price of A$1.20 each, and the funds raised would supplement Atrum’s existing facilities to allow the company to complete a sell-down process to fund its Groundhog North project, in Canada.

The placement was done under the company’s existing capacity.

“2014 has been a solid year for exploration and development at Groundhog. We have a robust prefeasibility study (PFS) for Groundhog North in hand and look forward to capitalising on the strong interest shown by prospective consumers in our high-grade and ultra high-grade anthracite,” said executive chairperson James Chisholm.

“Given we have completed the bulk of our site works for the time being, Atrum is now well funded to finalise a finance package for Groundhog North,” he added.

A supplementary PFS into the 5.4-million-tonne-a-year run-of-mine Groundhog North project delivered improved economics of $58-million to deliver a small-scale mining operation.

The projected mine life increased by 138%, from 16 years to 38 years, while the project’s net present value increased by 62%, to A$1.68-billion, and its internal rate of return increased from 39% to 42%.

Chisholm said that over the coming months, Atrum would focus on progressing permitting, running the multi-track funding process for Groundhog North, completing a concept study for an additional mine, geological modelling and a resource upgrade.

The multi-track funding process has been designed to maintain competitive tension between high-grade anthracite end-users, he added, as well as global private equity groups and government-owned enterprises that have shown a strong interest in participating in the mine’s development process.