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- With the completion of a $43 million placement, Vital Metals (VML) has moved closer to starting rare earths production in the second quarter of 2021
- The company has received firm commitments from investors to purchase roughly 661.5 million shares at 6.5 cents each
- This price represents an 8.2 per cent discount to Vital’s 15-day volume-weighted average price of 7.1 cents as of March 16 this year
- The proceeds will be used to fund the construction, mining and operations at the Nechalacho rare earths project in Canada
- Vital Metals is down 6.25 per cent to 7.5 cents per share
With the completion of a $43 million placement, Vital Metals (VML) has moved closer to starting rare earths production in the second quarter of 2021.
According to this morning’s announcement, the company has received firm commitments from institutional, sophisticated and professional investors to purchase roughly 661.5 million shares at 6.5 cents each.
This price represents an 8.2 per cent discount to Vital’s 15-day volume-weighted average price of 7.1 cents as of March 16 this year and a 5.5 per cent discount to its 20-day volume-weighted average price of 6.9 cents.
All of the shares will be issued in a single tranche, which is expected to settle on Friday, March 26.
Managing Director Geoff Atkins said the placement is “transformative” and noted the strong support from several large North American institutional investors, as well as from existing shareholders both locally and internationally.
“This support validates our strategy to produce rare earths for a globally diversified supply chain,” he added.
“As demand for critical minerals including rare earths continues to grow, our Canadian based project is positioned to supply customers in North America, Europe and Asia.”
The proceeds will be used to fund the construction, mining and operations at the Nechalacho rare earths project, with an ore sorter and other equipment set for delivery by the end of this month.
“We look forward to the commencement of our first mining campaign for stage one operations” — which Atkins said is now fully funded — “at the North T Zone this month, and expect this will provide cashflow for our larger scale, longer life operation at Tardiff, where we are currently drilling to define a preliminary mine plan as stage two of the project,” he continued.
Vital Metals is down 6.25 per cent to 7.5 cents per share at 10:42 am AEDT.
