Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Nickel miner Poseidon Nickel on Friday announced that it had raised A$30-million through a share placement to strategic, professional and sophisticated investors.
The company would place more than 166.66-million shares, at a price of 18c each, to raise the capital.
“We have been delighted with the strong support from investors to provide the necessary funding for Poseidon to get ready for production. We now have an enviable pipeline of projects, supported by a strong balance sheet with an emerging nickel market,” said CEO David Singleton.
The funds would allow Poseidon to complete the remaining refurbishments at the Mt Windarra project, in Western Australia, and to start capital works at Lake Johnston.
Furthermore, the funding would allow the company to repay its debt.
At Mt Windarra, Poseidon was preparing to restart mining operations, at a cost of some A$11-million. Ore from the Mt Windarra operation would be truck hauled and toll treated under an agreement with BHP Billiton’s Nickel West division.
The concentrate produced from this would be purchased by Nickel West.
The restart of the Lake Johnston project, which was acquired from Russian major Norilsk Nickel in September this year, was also expected to cost some A$10-million, excluding working capital.
The project is estimated to contain about 70 500 t of nickel, and includes an underground mine and a 1.5-million-tonne-a-year concentrator plant. Historically, the mine produced some 12 000 t/y of nickel.
Poseidon said on Friday that the share placement would occur in two tranches, with the first comprising 85-million shares using the company’s existing 15% capacity.
The placement of the remaining 81.66-million shares would be subject to shareholder approval.