PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior Northern Minerals is looking to raise about A$5.3-million for its Browns Range heavy rare earths project, in Western Australia.
The developer said on Tuesday that the funding initiative would include a share placement, priced at 18c a share. The offer price represented a 9.1% discount to the company’s closing price on March 17.
MD George Bauk noted that the funding initiative would support the company’s aim of bringing the Browns Range project into production by 2016.
“This funding increases certainty and flexibility for Northern Minerals, as we take Browns Range through the current feasibility studies towards production,” he said.
Bauk added that the funding would be directed towards a number of work programmes as part of the feasibility study, as well as for general working purposes.
“Our earlier scoping study activities delivered positive economic outcomes, supporting the progression to a prefeasibility study, which we are aiming to complete next quarter.
“We have also delivered a number of milestones since the scoping studies, which have made the project even more robust. This includes significant increase in our Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource and improvements in the beneficiation flow sheet, both of which we expect to have direct and positive impacts on the economics of the project.”
The Browns Range project has a mineral resource estimate of 4.13-million tonnes, at 0.68% rare-earth oxides, for 28 084 t of total rare-earth oxide.