BlackEarth Minerals NL (ASX: BEM) (BlackEarth or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has successfully completed a bookbuild and secured commitments from investors in Australia to subscribe for a minimum of approximately 28.413m new fully paid ordinary shares in the Company to raise gross proceeds of A$1,420,694 (Placement) before costs. MacMillan Capital Pty Ltd was appointed as Lead Broker to the placement.
Highlights:
Placement completed oversubscribed by over 50%
Funds will be applied to exploration activities at the Maniry and Donnelly River Projects
Pilot work will be completed to formalise further offtake arrangement discussions
Ongoing testing and evaluation of downstream processing opportunities with overseas parties will be quickly advanced
BEM will provide a detailed market update in the near term on further developments
The funds raised by the Placement will, together with the Company's existing funds, be used to commence some or all of the work to progress the definitive feasibility study for the Maniry Graphite Project (activities as outlined below) and for working capital purposes: Exploration activities at the Maniry Project and Donnelly River Prospect Hydrology and geotechnical work Further bulk metallurgical test work testing Independent social, community and environmental studies Further testing and evaluation of downstream processing opportunities
BlackEarth's Managing Director, Tom Revy, said: "The Board of BEM is excited about a number of developing opportunities for the Company and these funds will be utilised specifically for purpose of advancing the development and growing the value of our existing assets. We're pleased with the renewed and growing interest in the graphite sector and we believe our Donnelly River assets also offer a unique opportunity to shareholders. Technical and other resources will be applied to assessing these assets in the immediate term. Additional production and testing of concentrate for the purposes of undertaking detailed downstream battery, refractory and expandable product test work which will be used for definitive offtake discussions. We look forward to updating the market with further developments in the near future".
