JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Australia’s Kimberley Diamonds has raised $4.02-million in capital, some of which has been used to partly repay China-based auction house Zhejiang Huitong Auction, which had previously lent the ASX-listed miner $13-million.
Kimberley Diamonds placed about 40-million ordinary fully paid shares at $0.10 a share. About 100% of the available shortfall shares were successfully placed with sophisticated and professional investors, which raised about $3.57-million.
The Africa-focused company also issued about 7-million of the shortfall shares to Zhejiang in part payment of the interest owed.
The miner and Zheijiang agreed to vary the loan agreement to enable Zhejiang to convert about $180 000 of its loan to Kimberley Diamonds shares at $0.10. Kimberley Diamonds now owes Zhejiang about $11.3-million.
Though listed on the ASX, Kimberley Diamonds is focused on recovering diamonds from the Lerala diamond mine, in Botswana. It is also operational in Spain, at the Lomero-Poyatos gold-rich sulphide deposit in the Iberian Pyrite Belt, and is part of the Tilwane joint venture, a licence and prospecting licence located near Botswana’s Orapa diamond mine.