JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – As part of the Equity Finance Facility (EFF) it announced in March, coal focused African energy exploration and development company Edenville Energy on Monday has raised £106 895 through a subscription for new ordinary shares in the company’s capital by Henderson Global Investors' Volantis Capital subsidiary Darwin Strategic.

Pursuant to the terms of the draw down, the company agreed to issue 53-million new ordinary shares to Darwin at a price of 0.2p apiece, conditional on admission of the new shares to trading on the Aim. The new shares rank on par with the existing ordinary shares.

Following admission of the new shares on the Aim later this month, the company's enlarged issued share capital would comprise 4.62-billion ordinary shares.

"We are pleased that the issue price of the shares has been completed at a premium to the current market price. Further use of the EFF is entirely at Edenville's discretion and we retain complete control over timing, amount and, importantly, the 'floor price' of any future drawdown. 

“This allows Edenville to set the lowest price at which it is prepared to issue shares to Darwin…we will continue to maintain the facility as a viable source of funding, should the need arise in the future," chairperson Sally Schofield said.

Meanwhile, mining engineering and mine design services provider Sound Mining Solutions (SMS) has been contracted to undertake a first-pass scoping study at Edenville’s Namwele coal deposit in the Rukwa coalfield, in Tanzania, with the purpose of exploring the viability of a small openpit mining operation.

The study, which was due for completion in the third quarter of this year, would assess the potential of producing up to 25 000 t/m of saleable product for transport to local and regional customers. Edenville indicated that, following the completion of the scoping study it would review the options available to develop a Phase I mining operation to supply coal into the local market.

Further, Tanzania's National Environment Management Council (NEMC) had completed its site visit in regards to the preliminary environmental-impact assessment (EIA) submitted to it by Edenville in January for the Namwele and Mkomolo deposits and has sent a series of recommendations and questions to Edenville.

The company indicated that it had addressed all of the points raised by the NEMC and that the EIA had been returned for further revision, with the process expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.

Edenville stated that the data garnered through the scoping study and the EIA would feed into the feasibility study submission, which would, in turn, allow for the conversion of prospecting licences to mining licences.

"The start of the scoping study is a step closer to our stated ambition of generating near-term revenues and becoming an established coal producer…We are also working closely with the NEMC to further the EIA to completion and, alongside the scoping study, it will form a key function in progressing the project at Namwele,” Schofield said.

She added that, in addition to the work programme at Namwele, the company continued to pursue its longer term goal of establishing a partnership to provide coal to a mine mouth power station.