25th Jul 2014 07:00
Bacanora Minerals Ltd.
("Bacanora Minerals" or the "Company")
First Day of Dealings on AIM
Successful Placing to raise £4.75 million for the Company
Bacanora Minerals, the Canadian resources company with assets in Mexico, is pleased to announce that Admission takes place and dealings in the Company's Common Shares commence at 8.00 a.m. today on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange.
Key Admission and Placing Details
· the fundraising raised £4.75 million for the Company, before expenses, through the issue of 14,393,940 Common Shares at the Placing Price of 33 pence per share;
· 2,000,000 existing Common Shares have been placed in a Vendor Placing;
· market capitalisation of the Company on Admission at the Placing Price £25.8 million;
· 78,265,661 Common Shares in issue immediately following the Placing on Admission;
· the Company's TIDM code is BCN and its ISIN is CA05634Q1054; and
· HD Capital Partners LLP is acting as financial adviser and broker and Cairn Financial Advisers LLP as nominated adviser.
Highlights
The Company explores and develops industrial mineral projects, with a primary focus on borates and lithium. The Company's operations are based in Hermosillo in northern Mexico and the Company currently has two significant projects under development in the State of Sonora, one being a borate project and the other a lithium project.
The Common Shares are currently listed on the TSX-V, and will continue to be listed and traded on the TSX-V following Admission.
The two main assets of Bacanora Minerals are:
· The Magdalena Borate Project in Sonora State, Mexico, where the Company's main borate zone, El Cajon, has a NI 43-101 compliant Indicated Resource of 1.17 Mt of B2O3, at an 8 per cent. cut-off grade. The Company has completed a number of measures to determine the geological and commercial potential of the project and is undertaking a pre-feasibility exercise to determine the economic benefit of developing the mine and constructing a processing plant on site in order to become a supplier of boric acid; and
· The Sonora Lithium Project, which covers ten mining concession areas in North East Sonora State. Five of the concessions have been granted by the Federal Mining Ministry, and the remaining five areas are the subject of applications that have been made by the Company and are Approved for Title. The Company, through drilling work to date, has established a NI 43-101 compliant Indicated Resource of 2.68 Mt of LCE at a 2,000 ppm cut-off grade attributable to Bacanora Minerals. With the additional drilling and other assessment work that is required, the Directors believe that the Company is well placed to increase the lithium resources of the Company and to establish the potential economic benefit of developing the mining area.
The Company has also constructed a pilot plant in Hermosillo, Sonora State, Mexico in order to conduct detailed metallurgy on core samples and run process tests to establish the optimum ore processing methods for both the Magdalena Borate Project and the Sonora Lithium Project.
The net proceeds from the Placing will be applied to general working capital purposes and in particular to fund the preparation of a pre-feasibility study on the Magdalena Borate Project and for the continuation of the work programme to establish the economic potential of the Sonora Lithium Project.
Borates and Lithium Markets
Borates are used in a variety of industrial applications from insulation fibreglass and glass manufacturing to agriculture as one of the seven micronutrients vital to crop production.
Lithium has a number of important qualities such as high energy storage, heat resistance and insulation. Most common uses are in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (in electric vehicles, mobile phones and tablets) and in the ceramic and glass industries. Global demand is increasing and the evolution of electric vehicles and requirement for green energy is expected to continue to drive the demand for lithium.
Commenting on the IPO of Bacanora, Colin Orr-Ewing, Non-Executive Chairman said,
"The successful listing on AIM and the Placing of the New Shares provides Bacanora Minerals with the financial resources and the capital markets' platform to accelerate the exploration and development of our two key projects.
Bacanora Minerals continues to deliver on its key project milestones with the next phases of its growth, including the completion of the economic feasibility study of our high grade Borate Project, and the development of commercial production of boric acid. We continue to explore our lithium resource base at Sonora and look forward to advancing this project further."
A copy of the admission document is available from the Company website: www.bacanoraminerals.com.
AIM Rule 17
Rule 17 of the AIM Rules requires, inter alia, that an AIM listed company must notify the market of any changes of which it is aware to its shareholders' interests in three per cent. or more of the Common Shares and changes thereto (of any movements through a percentage point upwards or downwards). The Directors have approved a resolution to change the Company's bylaws to require that Shareholders holding interests in three per cent. or more of the Company's Common Shares inform the Company thereof and to inform the Company of relevant subsequent changes thereto. Accordingly, Shareholders are requested to notify the Company to enable it to comply with the AIM Rules.
The total number of Common Shares in issue following the Placing and Admission will be 78,265,661. This figure may be used by Shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of Bacanora Minerals.
Other than the Shareholders set out below, the Directors are not aware of any interest which, immediately following Admission, would amount to 3 per cent. or more of the Company's issued share capital.
Common Shares on Admission | Percentage of enlarged share capital | |
Igneous Capital Limited | 10,000,000 | 12.78% |
Colin Orr-Ewing | 9,958,683 | 12.72% |
Rare Earth Minerals Plc | 7,772,000 | 9.93% |
D&A Income Limited | 5,303,030 | 6.78% |
Saorse Limited | 3,510,046 | 4.48% |
Capitalised terms in this announcement, unless otherwise defined, carry the same meaning as assigned to them in the admission document dated 21 July 2014.
Enquiries please contact:
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Bacanora Minerals Colin Orr-Ewing, Non-Executive Chairman Shane Shircliff, CEO
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+44 (0) 20 3696 2410 +1 (306) 649 0602
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Cairn Financial Advisers LLP, Nomad Sandy Jamieson / Liam Murray
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+44 (0) 20 7148 7900 |
HD Capital Partners LLP, Broker Philip Haydn-Slater / Paul Dudley
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+44 (0) 20 3551 4870 |
Buchanan, Financial PR Adviser Bobby Morse / Louise Mason |
+44 (0) 20 7466 5000 |
Related Shares:
BCN.L