PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Bowen Coking Coal will raise A$41.5-million in a placement to sophisticated and professional investors to acquire a 90% interest in the Burton mine and Lenton project, and to partly fund the restart costs at Burton.

Bowen Coking Coal at the end of December last year announced a binding sale and purchase agreement with fellow-listed coal miner New Hope Corporation to acquire New Lenton Coal, following a binding term sheet in August.

Under the terms of the agreement, Bowen would pay A$20-million upfront, as well as potential milestone and royalty payments up to a maximum value of A$77.5-million.

The acquisition provides established infrastructure with a replacement value of over A$300-million, a 64-million-tonne openpit resource at Burton and a 140-million-tonne openpit resource at New Lenton. The assets provide significant synergies being within close proximity of Broadmeadow East and Hillalong.

Bowen said at the time that the acquisition would cement the long‐term and significant production status of Bowen and facilitate the creation of the Burton complex, consisting of the Burton, Lenton and Broadmeadow East operations, which is targeting up to 4.5-million tonnes a year of long‐term run-of-mine (RoM) production commencing with up to one-million-tonne-a-year of RoM production through the Fitzroy processing facility in 2022.

Bowen on Thursday said that it would place more than 207.3-million shares, at a price of 20c each, under the company’s existing placement capacity, to raise A$41.5-million.

“We are delighted with the support for the placement and welcome a number of new highly credentialed investors to the register. The hard work of the Bowen team has paid off with the acquisition of Burton cementing our premium portfolio of near-term production assets,” said Bowen MD Gerhard Redelinghuys.

“We have secured a number of highly synergistic assets, rapidly bringing our projects into production to leverage favourable coal prices. We are excited to take the next step in our growth story, with first production from the Bluff mine acquisition, completed in December 2021, expected by the end of the first quarter of 2022.”