Brisbane’s Metro Mining Ltd announced earlier today a successful bookbuild that raised the firm A$38 million (US$30 million) in capital.
According to Metro, the institutional placement was quite popular, gaining support with both existing investors and new parties from both within Australia and abroad.
Greenstone Metro Holdings LP was part of the institutional placement and maintained its 19.9 percent stake per the anti-dilution rights held by the firm.
This placement, along with the late debt financing package with Sprott and Ingatatus, fully funds the construction and development of Bauxite Hills Mine. Metro Mining says this means that construction on the mine will begin immediately, resulting in first production from the mine to begin next April.
The Sole Lead Manager to the institutional placement was Argonaut, with assistance from Morgans in Australia and Tamesis in Europe.
“We are delighted by the success of the Institutional Placement which generated exceptional demand from leading institutional investors. The bookbuild closed quickly and well above target.”
“We are very pleased by the support shown by our existing institutional shareholders and that Greenstone has chosen to participate to the fullest extent possible to maintain its stake in Metro,” said the firm’s managing director Simon Finnis. “We are also very pleased to broaden and strengthen the register by attracting new high quality domestic and international institutional investors.
“This Institutional Placement completes Metro’s funding journey,” he went on. “We are fully funded and are now immediately commencing full construction of the Bauxite Hills Mine. Metro will become a leading Cape York bauxite producer early next year.”
Metro Mining is based in Brisbane, and began life when it was spun off from Cape Alumina Ltd. upon its takeover by MetroCoal Ltd in 2014. The firm has exploration rights in over 500 square miles of western Cape York, which is second to only Rio Tinto Alcan.