PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Potash developer Australian Potash will raise A$12-million to advance work at its Lake Wells sulphate of potash (SoP) project, in Western Australia.
The company on Tuesday announced that it would undertake a two tranche share placement priced at 8c a share.
The first tranche placement will consist of more than 97.4-million shares, and will be issued under the company’s existing placement capacity, while the second tranche of 52.5-million shares will be subject to shareholder approval, at the company’s annual general meeting scheduled for December.
In addition to the share placement, Australian Potash will also undertake a share purchase plan (SPP) to raise up to A$2-million. Eligible shareholders will be able to subscribe for up to A$30 000 worth of new shares in the company, also at a price of 8c each.
The SPP will open on November 22 and close on December 13.
“Funds raised from this placement and SPP will allow Australian Potash to continue to develop and derisk the Lake Wells SoP project over the coming months. Our progressive derisking strategy, when applied to the mineral resource, is to continue developing bores, pump-testing those bores and then reconciling recorded flow rates back to the hydro-model, which is effectively our mine development plan. At this point, our schedule indicates we will have approximately 30% to 50% of the production borefield by volume developed through the first quarter 2022,” said Australian Potash MD and CEO Matt Shackleton.
The A$208-million Lake Wells SoP project could deliver 150 000 t/y of SoP, based on the maiden reserve of 3.6-million tonnes, and will have a mine life of 30 years.