TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Spanish copper project developer EMED Mining has reported that 63% of the shares available in an open offer had been taken up by qualifying investors.
Some 45.5-million open offer shares had been conditionally subscribed for by qualifying shareholders and the remaining 26.3-million shares would now be made available for a rump placing to be conducted by brokers Canacord Genuity and Brandon Hill Capital.
The open offer was part of a £65-million funding proposal, which also included an arranged share subscription by cornerstone investors and a placing to a new significant investor.
Proceeds of the various funding arrangements were earmarked for the redevelopment of the Rio Tinto copper mine, in Spain’s Andalucía region.
Mining and production was expected to start later this year. Aim- and TSX-listed EMED had in January secured approval following a drawn out permitting process.
The Rio Tinto mine gave global conglomerate Rio Tinto its name. The mining giant sold its majority stake in the 1950s and the remainder in later years. The mine was shuttered in 2001, when copper prices were deemed unprofitable, until EMED took an option in the project and, later, gained ownership.
The brownfield project would require a capital investment of some $300-million. The project would ramp up to nine-million tonnes a year to produce some 40 000 t/y of copper and, over the next four years, it would ramp up to 15-million tonnes a year to deliver some 60 000 t/y of copper.