Minas Moatize
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Beacon Hill Resources on Monday said it was considering investor interest in acquiring a stake in the company or in its Minas Moatize coking coal project, in Mozambique.
The company was working with its adviser, Investec, to assess its options after a number of strategic investors expressed an interest in possibly acquiring shareholdings in the developing project or its operator.
However, with the discussions at an early stage, Beacon CEO Rowan Karstel warned that there was no certainty that the discussions would lead to an agreement on valuation or a transaction.
This comes as Beacon strengthened its $2.5-million cash balance by about $1.2-million through a planned £1.5-million capital raising and the receipt of some $1.1-million in value-added tax refunds.
The company raised the funds through the placing of up to 600-million ordinary shares at 0.25p apiece. About £745 000 of the funds would be used to refinance the final settlement of all amounts outstanding in the convertible loan from Darwin Strategic.
The balance would provide additional working capital for the third quarter as Beacon completes the financial due diligence for the Minas Moatize expansion project debt funding, which was expected to be concluded within a month, with the final relevant approvals sought shortly thereafter.
The updated opencut environmental management plan had been translated into Portuguese and submitted to the Department of Environment and the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the expansion of the wash plant had progressed into its “final form”.
Further, discussions to update the 2011 offtake contract to the satisfaction of the senior debt lender continued.