Canada Cobalt Works, which is aiming to be a vertically integrated North American leader in cobalt extraction and recovery, has increased its nonbrokered hard dollar private placement at 35c a unit to C$1.25-million, from the previously announced C$1-million.

The financing is expected to close on November 8.

Each unit of the private placement (3 571 428 units) comprises one share and one share purchase warrant. Each warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional common share of the company at an exercise price of C$0.55 a share for a period of two years from closing.

Proceeds of the financing will go toward the start of a Phase 2 underground drill programme, surface site preparation/development for other initiatives, regional exploration.

The company owns the Castle mine and the 78 km² Castle Property with strong exploration upside in the prolific past producing Gowganda high-grade silver camp, in northern Ontario. It has a pilot plant at Castle to produce cobalt-rich gravity concentrates and owns a proprietary hydrometallurgical process known as Re-2OX for the creation of technical grade cobalt sulphate, as well as nickel-manganese-cobalt formulations.

Last month, the company poured its first silver in a proof of concept test ahead of a ramp-up that will officially begin with the pouring of a 1 000-oz silver dore bar. The pilot plant at the Castle mine separated leaf silver and created silver gravity concentrate from mineralised Castle waste material. The concentrate and leaf silver were then smelted in the bullion furnace at PolyMet Labs in the town of Cobalt, just a one-hour drive from the Castle mine, to produce three silver bars totalling 300 oz.

Through its Re-2OX process, Canada Cobalt also used the same waste material to separately recover cobalt and produce a cobalt sulphate at SGS Lakefield.

Canada Cobalt recently signed a binding letter of intent to acquire privately-held PolyMet Resources, which owns the only facility in the northern Ontario silver/cobalt district that combines bullion pouring, bulk sampling, commercial assaying and e-waste processing – four key profit centers specialising in high-grade mineralisation.

Shares in the company closed 2.94% higher on Friday at C$.35 each, giving the company a market capitalisation of C$29.31-million.