Junior company raising funds for Botswana uranium, coal prospects

23rd May 2014 By: Tshiamo Tabane

Botswana- and Australia-listed mining company A-Cap Resources is in the process of raising capital of $5.8-million for the development of the Letlhakane uranium project, in Botswana, and further drilling the company’s Mea and Bolau coal projects, also in the Southern African country.

The capital raising comprises a placement to raise $1.32-million and a fully underwritten nonrenounce- able rights issue to raise $4.5-million.

“Proceeds from the capital raising will fund a major revese circulation and diamond drilling programme designed to better define and extend high-grade uranium mineralisation and provide further data for mine planning and resource modelling and fund other feasibility work, including process design and environmental work necessary for a mining licence application in the first half of 2015 at the Letlhakane uranium project, in Botswana,” says CEO Paul Thomson, adding that drilling will start this month.

“Proceeds will also be used to fund further drilling programmes on the Mea and Bolau coal projects, following positive reports from independent consultants,” Thomson says.

The Letlhakane uranium project is reportedly one of the world’s largest undeveloped uranium deposits. “The project lies adjacent to Botswana’s main north–south infrastructure corridor, which includes an all-weather highway, a railway line and the national power grid, all of which make significant contributions to keeping the capital cost of future developments low,” says A-Cap in a statement.

The Mea Coal project contains multiple coal seams and initial results are “very promising”, with raw coal quality at Mea potentially higher than the typical coal found elsewhere in Botswana. A Joint Ore Reserves Com-mittee-compliant inferred resource of 335-million tons of coal in multiple seams has been confirmed.

At the Bolau coal project, the company has initiated a scoping study to enable it to outline the next steps for the geological and economic evaluation of the project.