Patriot to raise C$50m for critical minerals hunt in Canada

16th March 2023 By: Esmarie Iannucci - Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Australasia

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Triple listed Patriot Battery Metals Inc will raise C$50-million to fund critical exploration at its Corvette property, in the James Bay region of Quebec.

The company on Thursday said it had received firm commitments via a strongly supported charity flow-through offer of 2.21-million shares, at an issue price of C$22.57 a share, representing a 90% premium to the company’s last closing price on the TSX-V.

Patriot told shareholders that the completion of the flow-through raising was subject to a number of conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals, although shareholder approval would not be required.

On completion of the flow-through raising, the flow-through shares will be converted into 22.15-million chess depositary interests (CDIs), with the joint lead managers to facilitate a secondary sale of the flow-through shares acquired by Peartree Securities to select institutional investors by way of a block trade priced at A$1.20 per CDI.

The allotment of CDIs in Australia will fall within Patriot’s 15% placement capacity under the ASX listing rules.

The ASX-, TSX-V- and FSE-listed company on Thursday said that funds raised will be used on exploration at the Corvette property.

“The Corvette property is shaping up as an extraordinary discovery and the strong support shown for this capital raising is a testament to that. We are now fully funded to undertake expanded exploration, environmental and prefeasibility study programmes well into 2024 and continue to deliver our business plan without the fear of uncertain market conditions facing the world currently,” said Patriot president, CEO and director Blair Way.

“We will be expanding our June to October drill programme to aggressively advance the drilling of the targets on the property including the definition of an initial resource at CV13, drill other CV cluster targets, and conduct grassroots field work on the remaining 20-plus kilometres of favourable geology extending across the property that has never been assessed for lithium pegmatite.

“With five drill rigs now active on site we will continue to advance aggressively the drilling of the CV Lithium Trend as we look ahead to an initial mineral resource estimate for CV5 targeted for the June of 2023.”