AIC Mines (ASX:A1M) reports that it has received firm commitments for $30 million in a placement designed to support the development of the Jericho mine and Eloise processing plant expansion at the Eloise Copper Mine in Queensland.
The company says the amount was raised from institutional and sophisticated investors for a two-tranche placement of about 66.7 million new fully paid ordinary shares at an issue price of $0.45 per share.
The first tranche is an unconditional placement of 56.3 million fully paid ordinary shares to raise about $25.3 million, while the second tranche will be a conditional placement of 10.4 million fully paid ordinary shares to raise around $4.7 million which will be issued subject to shareholder approval. This approval will be sought in a general meeting expected to be held on 29 March 2023.
Commenting on the placement, AIC Mines Managing Director Aaron Colleran said: “Development of the Jericho mine will be transformational for Eloise, increasing copper and gold production, decreasing operating costs and extending mine life.
“Development of the Jericho mine will be transformational for Eloise”
It is encouraging to have received such strong investor support to enable us to start advancing the development and expansion work to keep the timeline to production at Jericho as tight as possible.”
AIC Mines reports the placement price of $0.45 per new share represents an 8.2% discount to the last closing price of $0.49 prior to the placement, and a 7.5% discount to the 15-day volume weighted average price (VWAP) prior to the placement.
As part of the placement, and subject to shareholder approval, AIC Mines reports it has received commitments from existing substantial shareholder FMR Investments to invest about $1 million. The directors of AIC Mines have also applied for over 2.380 million shares under the second tranche of the placement.
The company reports new shares issued under the placement will rank equally with existing fully paid ordinary shares on issue. Argonaut Securities, and Shaw and Partners acted as Joint Lead Managers to the placement.
The Eloise Copper Mine is located 60km southeast of Cloncurry in North Queensland which has produced about 350,000 tonnes of copper, and 175,000 ounces of gold since it began production in 1996.
The company also holds the Marymia Exploration Project, and the Lamil Exploration Joint Venture (JV) Project split equally with Rumble Resources (ASX:RTR) in Western Australia.