PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Nickel miner Western Areas has sold its 18.8% interest in Aim- and FSE-listed Bluejay Mining for A$27-million, the company announced on Friday.
"This transaction will return material value back to Western Areas following a period of significant growth and value generation by Bluejay. It also assists in the transformation of Bluejay into a mineral sands developer with a stronger, and more appropriate, institutionally owned share register," Western Areas MD and CEO Daniel Lougher said.
Bluejay, which is which is developing the Pituffik titanium project, in Greenland, and owns a portfolio of copper, zinc and nickel projects in Finland, on Friday announced that it had raised £3.5-million before expenses in a share sale and private placement to institutional investors.
Bluejay CEO Roderick McIllree, who thanked Western Areas for its support over the last several years, said the offer was well covered by more than two times.
He added that the outcome of the share sale had led to a well-structured reorganisation of the company's shareholders. "We now have a significant UK-centric institutional register, which befits the company as we now move into a period of prolonged growth."
The dual-listed company would use the net proceeds of the equity fundraising to fund development work in relation to the Pituffik project and for general working capital purposes.
Meanwhile, Lougher said that Western Areas would use the A$27-million that it reaped from the Bluejay share sale to fund its organic development and growth projects, such as the Mill Recovery Enhancement Project at Forrestania and the Odysseus definitive feasibility study at Cosmos.