PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Metals X is hoping to raise A$50-million through an institutional placement, priced at 65c a share.

The company on Tuesday said that it will issue some 76.9-million shares to professional and institutional investors, to fund regional exploration, advance its development projects, and provide financial flexibility for the Nifty copper project, in Western Australia, as it ramps up production.

The issue price of 65c a share represented a discount of 8.5% to the company’s closing price on July 30, and a 7.1% discount to the five day volume weighted average share price.

“With Metals X, we have exceptional growth opportunities, with our immediate priority being the ramp-up of Nifty towards the targeted annual production rates of 40 000 t/y of copper in concentrate,” said Metals X MD Warren Hallam.

“In addition, we have a substantial regional portfolio of exploration tenure within the Paterson Province at Nifty and highly endowed tin field at Renison, a significant resource of copper at Maroochydore, a world-class and development-ready nickel/cobalt project at Wingellina and an expansion project at Renison in Rentails.”

Hallam said that Metals X is well positioned with its growth portfolio of short-, medium- and long-term opportunities to generate strong cash flows with long-life mines.

“Given the recent volatility in copper price and the slower than expected ramp-up at Nifty, as previously announced, we considered it prudent to further strengthen our balance sheet to provide additional financial flexibility for our producing operations while accelerating our exploration, growth and development projects.”

Hallam said that the A$50-million proceeds from the placement, along with the company’s available cash on hand of some A$31-million, would provide Metals X with the financial flexibility to achieve its strategic growth objectives.

Metals X took control of the Nifty project in August 2016, and has been working since then to increase the production rate to create a large-scale, long-life mine with a yearly production rate of more than 40 000 t/y of contained copper in concentrate.