PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Element 25 (E25) will raise some A$35.5-million through a share placement to investors to fund the Stage 2 expansion of manganese concentrate production at its Butcherbird project, in Western Australia.
The company on Wednesday announced that it had received firm commitments from investors for the placement, which will be priced at A$2.20 a share. The offer price represents an 8% premium to E25’s 30-day volume weighted average share price.
The shares will be placed under the company’s existing placement capacity, and will not require shareholder approval.
E25 noted that the funds raised would be used for the planned Stage 2 expansion of Butcherbird, where pre-commissioning activities started earlier this year, to over one-million tonnes a year of manganese concentrate.
Wet commissioning of the Butcherbird project is currently under way, and a progressive ramp-up is scheduled for the next three months to allow the project to reach nameplate capacity of 341 000 t/y.
E25 has previously said that an incremental capital investment of A$20.3-million would be required to fund the Stage 2 expansion, in addition to the A$20.3-million spent on the Stage 1 operation.
The raising will also underpin funding to accelerate work on completing the flowsheet and plant design to produce high purity battery grade manganese sulphate for new energy vehicles.