Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- Heavy mineral sands explorer Strandline Resources (STA) has successfully tapped investors for $18.5 million to develop its Coburn project in Western Australia
- The funds were raised through an oversubscribed share placement to institutional and sophistical investors, with new shares priced at 21.5 cents each
- While most of the money will be used to develop the Coburn project, Strandline said some of the cash will go towards general working capital across its project portfolio
- Along with Coburn, Strandline holds roughly 2000 square kilometres of tenure split between five projects in Tanzania
- Strandline shares closed grey today, worth 24 cents each
Heavy mineral sands explorer Strandline Resources (STA) has successfully tapped investors for $18.5 million to develop its Coburn project in Western Australia.
The company pulled in the new funds through a share placement to institutional and sophisticated investors. New shares issued in the placement were priced at 21.5 cents each — a discount of just over 10 per cent to Strandline’s last closing price of 24 cents.
Strandline said the placement was heavily oversubscribed.
The company said while the majority of the funds will go towards the development of the Coburn project, which includes front-end design and early works construction, some of the cash will also go towards general working capital across Strandline’s project portfolio.
Strandline Managing Director Luke Graham said the strong demand for the placement is proof of the quality of the company’s heavy mineral sands projects.
“Coburn is a world-scale project with outstanding forecast financial returns in a tier-one location,” Luke touted.
“This raising means we now have $23 million cash, which will enable us to undertake detailed design work and procure long-lead items, ensuring we remain on track to capitalise on the emerging demand for mineral sands,” he said.
Of course, this is not the first bit of funding Strandline has locked in for Coburn; the company received a neat $150 million loan from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) to build up the project in June.
The development of Coburn has been tracking along nicely, with Strandline hiring civic and mining contractor Macmahon to build road access and bulk earthworks at the project earlier this week.
On top of its Australian assets, Strandline holds roughly 2000 square kilometres of tenure across the Tanzanian coast. The landholding is split among five different projects in Tanzania, each at a different stage of development.
Following today’s news, Strandline shares spent most of the day in the green. However, come market close, the company’s share price ran out of steam and closed grey at 24 cents per share. Strandline has a $104.56 million market cap.
