KALGOORLIE (miningweekly.com) – Junior Rex Minerals on Wednesday unveiled a A$50-million capital raise to fund pre-development activities at its Hillside copper project, in South Australia.
Rex will undertake the share placement of 166.7-million shares, at a price of 30c each, in two tranches.
The first tranche placement will consist of 17.8-million shares, which will be issued under Rex’s placement capacity to raise an initial A$5.3-million, while the second tranche placement of 148.8-million shares, to raise a further A$44.7-million, will be subject to shareholder approval.
Rex MD and CEO Richard Laufmann said on Wednesday that the successful completion of the placement would assist the company in advancing the development of its Hillside copper project.
“We are pleased to welcome strong institutional investors to our share register, with proceeds from the equity raising vital in ensuring that we are able to expand our project delivery team at Hillside and build momentum ahead of our target for a successful final investment decision in the fourth quarter of 2022.
“Rex is advancing rapidly as an emerging copper development company, following the South Australian government’s approval of the programme for environmental protection and rehabilitation. Subsequently, we released the 2020 Hillside feasibility costing update, retired all debt, completed the board successful, and doubled Hillside’s copper reserves.”
Rex has estimated that the Stage 1 operation at Hillside would require a capital investment of $410-million, with the balance of the financing to be required by the second half of 2022 in a mixture of equity and debt to be determined.
The six-million-tonne-a-year operation is expected to produce some 35 000 t/y of copper and 24 000 oz/y of gold for the first 12 years of operation.