Liontown to Roar After $12.5 Million Raising.
Liontown Resources (ASX: LTR) has confirmed it has accepted firm commitments for a $12.5 million capital raising to underpin the continued advancement of its 100%-owned Kathleen Valley Lithium-Tantalum and Moora Gold-PGE- Nickel-Copper Projects in Western Australia.
As a result of the raising the Company’s flagship Kathleen Valley Lithium- Tantalum Project will be fully funded through to completion of a DFS in Q4 2021, underpinning the next stage of its journey to become a significant second-generation Australian lithium-tantalum producer.
The capital raising was undertaken at $0.23 per share and comprises:
– A $10.33 million placement via the issue of 44,923,913 New Shares to institutional and sophisticated investors within the Company’s 15% placement capacity in accordance with ASX Listing Rule 7.1; and
– A $2.17 million placement via the issue of 9,423,913 New Shares to the Company’s Directors (and their associates), subject to shareholder approval.
The issue price of $0.23 per New Share represents a 13.2% discount to the last closing price of $0.265 on Monday, 26th October 2020.
Liontown’s Managing Director, David Richards said: “This placement further de-risks Liontown’s development pathway and puts us in a great position to advance our high-quality Kathleen Valley Lithium-Tantalum Project rapidly towards completion of a DFS and project financing. The strong demand from investors is testament to the quality, grade, scale and location of the Kathleen Valley Project – which is now firmly established as Australia’s fifth largest spodumene-lithium resource.”
Breaker Encouraged by Results at Lake Roe Project.
Breaker Resources (ASX: BRB) has reported strong drilling results from three areas outside the 1Moz open pit Resource at Bombora, situated within the Company’s 100%-owned Lake Roe Project, 100km east of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
The drilling is part of a major program underway to grow the Resource, expand an extensively de- risked open pit mining option and realise the full potential of a 30km gold system outlined by regional aircore drilling.
Breaker Executive Chairman Tom Sanders said the new results continued to demonstrate the growth potential at Lake Roe, where a pattern of drilling and consistent discovery has been established each quarter over five years. This bears all the hallmarks of new gold camp.
“We are now starting to close the drill spacing at Bombora and Kopai-Crescent in preparation for resource delineation drilling. It is too early to put a timing on the next resource update as we are still firming up the geometry and extent of the gold mineralisation in several areas.”
Pilbara Minerals to Acquire Altura Lithium Project.
Following the appointment of KordaMentha as the Receiver of Altura Mining (ASX:AJM), Pilbara Minerals (ASX: PLS) has entered into an Implementation Deed with the senior secured loan noteholders of Altura which provides it with a path to potentially acquire the Altura Lithium Project through the purchase of the shares in Altura Lithium Operations Pty Ltd (“ALO”) for approximately US$175 million, subject to completion of the receivership process.
The acquisition of the Altura Project would provide Pilbara Minerals with an opportunity to consolidate the two neighbouring projects into a single integrated operation. Of particular interest to the Company is the opportunity to mine that section of the Altura orebody that is otherwise sterilised without access being granted to Pilbara Minerals’ ground to undertake mining activities.
Pilbara Minerals’ Managing Director, Ken Brinsden, said: “This potential acquisition represents a logical consolidation of two neighbouring operations to unite the greater Pilgangoora orebody, unlocking tangible synergies in both the short and long term”
If successful, Pilbara Minerals claims the acquisition will position the company as the largest pure-play ASX-listed lithium company by enterprise value and will provide strong leverage to the expected recovery in lithium prices, driven by the increasing demand for electric vehicles and energy storage applications evident across the world.
MACA and Carabella Place Mine in Care and Maintenance.
MACA Limited (ASX: MLD) in conjunction with Carabella Resources have agreed to place the Bluff PCI project mine on care and maintenance while the coal price remains below economic levels and uncertainty remains regarding Chinese Government policy relating to Australian metallurgical coal imports. The parties are working to fulfil current coal sales obligations with mining services expected to halt around the end of November 2020.
The carrying value of the receivable amount owing from Carabella for mining services performed and the working capital facility as at 30 June 2020 was $34.7M. Whilst the monthly balance fluctuates with the working capital cycle MACA expects the overall future recoveries to be materially in line with the carrying value of the receivable.
MACA CEO Mike Sutton said “In conjunction with our client, Carabella, we believe it is prudent to cease operations until a sustained recovery in the PCI coal price occurs. MACA are able to redeploy the majority of the Bluff fleet to existing and new projects which are commencing shortly. A relocation of the Bluff fleet will reduce the expected capital expenditure for FY21 by $35M as a result.”
SOR Escalates Self-Charging Battery Development.
Further to an announcement they made earlier, Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) subsidiary Australian Advanced Materials Battery has agreed to escalate development of the self-charging flexible battery technology under collaboration with the University of New South Wales . The team will fast-track ink scale up to achieve 1 litre of ink within the next 4 weeks. To provide perspective, 1 litre of Battery Ink has the capacity to produce more than 2000 printable battery cells.
SOR Managing Director Charles Murphy said: “It took years for our team to understand how to scale up our Nanocube Memory Ink to a 1 litre batch size. Achieving this within 4 weeks for the Battery Ink will provide strong evidence of the potential to harness our previous electronic ink experience. It’s an ambitious goal but it’s a challenge the team have taken on. We have also agreed with UNSW to pursue Federal Government ‘matching grant funding’ opportunities for integration of the Memory, Battery and Electronic Circuit ink technologies”.
The self-charging battery technology is being developed under a collaboration with the University of New South Wales and CSIRO partially funded by the Federal Government . The Battery cells generate electricity from humidity in the air or skin surface to self-charge themselves within minutes. No manual charging or wired power is required. They are created with a printable ink and are ideally suited for use in Internet of Things (IOT) devices.