JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Clean TeQ has raised A$150-million in an underwritten institutional placement at A$1.15 a share to fund early works and long-lead items for the Sunrise nickel/cobalt/scandium project, in New South Wales.
The company is pursuing an expedited development timetable to take advantage of rapidly growing markets for these materials, with production expected to start about a year earlier than previously contemplated.
In July last year, Clean TeQ announced that it had acquired two autoclaves from Vale International, a subsidiary of Brazil’s Vale, for $6.5-million. The autoclaves have been shipped to Australia and will be stored at Port Pirie until they are moved to the project.
Clean TeQ reported on Thursday that the early acquisition of the critical long-lead items provided the company with the opportunity to compress the overall construction schedule to about two years from the point of a final investment decision (FID).
A FID is expected following the completion of a definitive feasibility study for the project, which is currently slated for the second quarter. Formal site construction works are pencilled in for early 2019, with production, commissioning and ramp-up targeted to start in early 2021.
Clean TeQ Sunrise is one of the largest cobalt and nickel deposits outside Africa, and one of the largest and highest-grade accumulations of scandium ever discovered.