PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diamond miner Lucapa Diamond Company has secured up to A$12.5-million from investors to advance its mining operations in Angola.
The ASX-listed company reported on Monday that it had signed an agreement with a group of high net worth investors, who would provide financial support of up to A$12.5-million, comprising A$3.5-million in equity placements and up to A$8.5-million in additional future funding.
The A$3.5-million placement would involve the issue of some 19.4-million fully paid shares at a price of 18c each to the investors, with the shares issued alongside one attaching option, exercisable at 20c each, within two years of issue.
The placement remained subject to shareholder approval.
The diamond miner noted that the proceeds from the placement would be used to source additional earthmoving equipment to scale up the alluvial diamond mining operations beyond its current 20 000 bulk cubic metres a month and for working capital. The additional fleet would allow Lucapa to feed the 150 t/h diamond processing plant from two separate alluvial areas to optimise volume delivery.
The new equipment would also allow the miner to advance its kimberlite exploration programme.
CEO Stephen Wetherall said on Monday that securing the long-term support of the new investors not only provided the funding for Lucapa to continue scaling up its alluvial and kimberlite programmes, but also enabled the company to mine diamonds from two separate sources at Lulo, for the first time.
“It also helps achieve our objective of building a stable register of long-term shareholders who are here to support Lucapa in unlocking the true value of what we believe is one of the best diamond projects in the world.”
Lucapa has, meanwhile, sold its fifth parcel of diamonds from the Lulo project, containing some 2 559 ct to generate a gross revenue of A$1.02-million. The parcel received an average sales price of A$400/ct.
To date, Lucapa had generated A$10.7-million in proceeds from the sale of its diamonds, totalling 6 415 ct.