JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Bushveld Minerals has conditionally raised about $22.2-million, before expenses, by way of an oversubscribed placing of 152.75-million new ordinary shares at a price of 10.3p a share with leading institutional and mining investors.
The placing shares will represent about 14.4% of the company's issued share capital on admission.
The proceeds will be used to redeem the outstanding $6.3-million Atlas Capital Convertible Bond and $9-million will be spent on simplifying Bushveld’s organisational and corporate structure to improve Bushveld’s exposure to the underlying cash flows of its assets.
A further $5.6-million of the proceeds will also be used to support Bushveld's vanadium expansion programme at the Vametco mine and the Brits project for future production.
“We are delighted by the response from investors to this capital raise which was significantly oversubscribed. We are particularly pleased to welcome to the company a consortium of highly experienced mining investors, as well as several leading UK institutional investors who buy into and support our ambitions to build a significant low cost and integrated primary vanadium company,” Bushveld CE Fortune Mojapelo commented.
He added that the capital raise will allow the company to improve its capital and corporate structure and to enhance the company's proximity to its underlying cash generating assets as it continues to develop its growth opportunities.
“We are grateful to the existing Bushveld shareholders who have continued to support the company,” he noted.
The placing was led by a consortium of cornerstone investors, including the original founders of Mimosa Platinum and LionOre Mining International, as well as the key investors in Mantra Resources at its inception.