West Africa-focused Kodal Minerals has conditionally raised £1.5-million, before expenses, by way of a subscription and placing of 1.1-billion ordinary shares at a price of 0.13p a share.

The net proceeds from the fundraising will be used to further the exploration and development programme at the Bougouni lithium project, in southern Mali.

As part of the fundraising, Suay Chin International will acquire 923-million Kodal shares for £1.2-million.

On completion, Suay Chin will own just over 2.2-billion ordinary shares, which will represent 29% of the issued share capital of Kodal.

Suay Chin currently holds 20% of the Kodal’s issued share capital.

Kodal further highlighted that the balance of the fundraising has been completed by way of a placing of 230-million ordinary shares with existing and new shareholders of the company at the subscription price.

"The company welcomes the continued financial and strategic support of Suay Chin. Kodal and Suay Chin are continuing to work together on the metallurgical test work and bulk sampling with the aim of progressing our project as rapidly as possible,” commented Kodal CEO Bernard Aylward.

As part of the initial investment by Suay Chin, the companies have agreed to negotiate a binding offtake agreement as the project advances to development, and this further investment by Suay Chin confirms its confidence in the Bougouni lithium project and the interest in securing supply of the spodumene concentrate.

"Our work programmes conducted across Bougouni have confirmed the presence of significant, high-grade lithium mineralisation at shallow depth. Further underpinning the potential commercial value of this asset are the encouraging results from the metallurgical and processing test work.”

In line with this, Aylward said the company will be working towards the development of a maiden resource estimate over the summer months once it has received the assay results from the most recent drill programme.

“In the meantime, these new funds from Suay Chin and other investors will allow us to plan with confidence for the next drilling season later this year,” he stated.