PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Potash developer BCI Minerals has successfully completed the institutional equity raising to partially fund the development of its Mardie project, in Western Australia.
The company earlier this week launched a A$360-million capital raise, which consists of a A$240-million share placement, a A$20-million share purchase plan (SPP), and a potential A$100-million convertible note issue.
BCI on Friday said that it has received commitments for the placement of some 588.1-million shares, at a price of 43c each, to raise the A$240-million, subject to shareholder approval at the company’s general meeting scheduled for December 20.
Due to the strong demand, subscriptions from cornerstone investors AustralianSuper for A$75-million and Wroxby for A$110-million were scaled back to A$72.5-million and A$103-million respectively. Accordingly, Canaccord has underwritten the A$64.5-million balance of the placement including subscriptions from Ryder for A$28.5-million and Sandon for A$3.5-million.
The SPP will open on November 26, and will close on December 17.
Funds raised, along with the A$740-million in debt funding secured previously, would be used for the development of the A$1.2-billion Mardie project.
The Mardie project is anticipated to produce some 5.35-million tonnes a year of salt and some 140 000 t/y sulphate of potash (SOP), over a projected mine life of at least 60 years.
Subject to shareholder approvals at a general meeting scheduled for December 20, and final statutory approvals, the funding solution would allow construction at Mardie to start in early 2022.