Nordic-focused mineral exploration and development company Beowulf Mining has £750 000 before expenses, part of which the Aim-listed junior will use for a further investment in a Kosovo-focused private explorer.

Beowulf will exercise the option to increase its stake in Vardar Minerals from 14.1% to 31.3% and will fund the private explorer’s 2019 Kosovan exploration programme at the Mitrovica project, targeting lead/zinc/silver, copper and gold mineralisation, and at the Viti project, targeting copper/gold, lithium/boron mineralisation.

CEO Kurt Budge said on Monday that exploration results from Vardar’s 2018 exploration programme for Mitrovica and Viti had been extremely encouraging and that it had given Beowulf the confidence to finance Vardar’s 2019 plans.

The proceeds of the capital raising will also be used for drilling at Beowulf’s Aitolampi graphite project in Finland and for drilling at Parkijaure, to the south of the Kallak iron-ore project, in Sweden.

Pursuant to the subscription, the company will issue 13 636 364 new ordinary shares at 5.5p each.  Beowulf’s share price traded at 6p on Monday morning, down 14.29% from Friday’s closing price of 7p a share.

Application has been made for the subscription shares to be admitted to trading on Aim on or around April 4.

“Given the current adverse market conditions affecting the junior mining sector and the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, I am pleased to have completed the subscription which helps maintain our strong cash position and enables us to keep investing across our business areas,” commented Budge.

 “Kallak is a quality asset and its value has enabled us to successfully raise modest amounts of funding over recent years, which we have used to maintain our commitment to Kallak and broaden our exploration activities with graphite in Finland and, more recently, base metals and precious metals in Kosovo.  We have the resources and competencies to focus on each area of our business, manage the risks and create shareholder value.

“We now have a company which has: Kallak as its foundation; a graphite exploration portfolio well-positioned to give Finland ‘security of supply’ in natural flake graphite for battery manufacturing; and an exciting ‘blue sky’ greenfield exploration programme for 2019 in Kosovo,” he added.

 The company held about £1.24-million in cash at February 28.