Battery and advanced materials company Talga Group (ASX:TLG) has received firm commitments for a placement of new fully paid ordinary shares to raise $40 million.
The oversubscribed placement, managed by Euroz Hartleys as sole lead manager and bookrunner, was ‘strongly’ supported by new and existing sophisticated, professional and institutional investors.
BurnVoir Corporate Finance acted as financial advisor to the company.
Addressing the capital raise, Talga Managing Director Mark Thompson says: “The strong demand from global and domestic institutional investors highlights the quality of Talga’s graphite anode projects and battery material technologies. I thank shareholders for their support during this period of transformational development and we look forward to delivering on targeted permitting, financing and commercial milestones throughout the year.”
New shares under the placement will be issued at $1.55 per share, representing a 11.5% discount to the 20-day volume weighted average price (VWAP) of $1.751. The placement will result in the issue of more than 25.8 million new shares, representing about 7.7% of total Talga fully paid ordinary shares on issue.
Proceeds will be used to fund Vittangi Anode Project early works, including earthworks and site infrastructure at the Luleå anode refinery site, commencement of procurement of anode equipment and detailed engineering, scaled up EVA production, silicon anode scale up including securing commercial site, and general working capital.
Meanwhile, Talga today (23 February) reports it expects a permitting decision on 5 April 2023 regarding its 100% owned integrated graphite mine and battery anode project in northern Sweden.
In May 2020, Talga submitted applications for an environmental permit and exploitation concession for its 100,000tpa graphite mining operation at Nunasvaara South, part of the Vittangi Graphite Project. The main hearing for the environmental permit application commenced before the Swedish Land and Environment Court on 31 January 2023 and concluded yesterday.
On the final day of the hearing, the court confirmed it will publish its decision on 5 April. The court’s decision will be subject to certain rights of appeal.
Following the granting of the environmental permit, the state mining inspectorate is expected to hand down its decision on the exploitation concession application.
Parallel to its mining permits, Talga submitted building licence and environmental permit applications for the establishment of a 19,500tpa commercial battery anode manufacturing plant in the Luleå Industrial Park.
Following review, Luleå Municipality has now granted building permits for Talga’s Refinery production facilities, with the decision to come into force on 24 March 2023 (pending any appeals).
The refinery environmental permit application is progressing through the Court’s standard process, including Talga’s request for permission for early construction. A positive ruling on Talga’s request would allow it to immediately commence early works at the anode refinery site, potentially at the start of H2 2023.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Talga Group Ltd
