Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Lithium developer Pilbara Minerals has announced a number of funding initiatives to raise up to A$92-million to complete the financing for its A$234-million Pilgangoora lithium-tantalum project, in Western Australia.
The ASX-listed company on Thursday announced that some 220-million fully paid ordinary shares would be issued at a price of 35c each under the equity raising, to qualified institutional and sophisticated investors, raising an initial A$77-million.
The placement will comprise wo tranches, with the first tranche raising some A$66.5-million using the company’s placement capacity. The second tranche to raise the remaining A$10.5-million will be subject to shareholder approval.
The equity raising will include the previously announced A$27-million share placement to offtake partner Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium, which was agreed to in May, when Pilbara inked a long-term offtake agreement over the Stage 1 production from the Pilgangoora project.
Meanwhile, Pilbara is also hoping to raise some A$15-million through a share purchase plan (SPP), which will comprise some 262.9-million shares that will be issued at a price of 35c each.
The issue price for both the SPP and the equity raising represented a 10.9% discount to Pilbara’s five-day volume weighted average share price prior to a trading halt on June 15.
The equity raising and SPP are in addition to the recent successful completion of a senior secured bond issue, which raised $100-million.
The funds will be used to complete the funding requirements for the Pilgangoora project, which is expected to produce an average of 314 000 t/y of 6% spodumene concentrate and 321 000 lb/y of tantalite, over a mine life of 36 years.