Black Rock Mining completes $2 million placement to support Tanzanian graphite objectives

40,816,327 shares will be issued at an 11.16% discount to the 14-day volume weighted average price

The placement will fund costs of a strategic alliance and development agreement with the POSCO Group and ongoing negotiations with the Government of Tanzania on a Free Carried Interest agreement.

Black Rock Mining Ltd (ASX:BKT) has completed a placement of $2 million at 4.9 cents per share to support due diligence and associated costs for strategic objectives to progress the Mahenge Graphite Project in Tanzania.

Funds will support costs related to a Strategic Alliance & Development agreement with the POSCO Group and support ongoing negotiations with the Government of Tanzania on the Free Carried Interest agreement.

Providing flexibility

Black Rock managing director and CEO John de Vries said: “While we are very confident of our developing relationship with POSCO and completion of our agreement with the Government of Tanzania, it is critical the company has adequate resources to complete these strategic objectives.

“Completing this small capital raising ensures the company has the flexibility we need and the capacity to move to the next stage of project development.

“We are pleased to have attracted institutional funds as part of this placement.”

The placement was strongly supported by several sophisticated investors, institutional investors and existing shareholders.

Funding due diligence

Funds raised from the placement will be used to:

• Support Black Rock Mining’s costs related to the Strategic Alliance and Development Agreement with the POSCO Group;
• Support ongoing negotiations with the Government of Tanzania on the Free Carried Interest agreement; and
• Working capital for normal operations of the company.

Placement details

The placement will utilise 40,816,327 shares of Black Rock’s existing placement capacity under ASX Listing Rule 7.1, and the placement shares will rank equally with the company’s existing fully paid ordinary shares.

The issue price represents an 11.16% discount to the 14-day volume-weighted average price of the company’s shares.

Blue Ocean Equities Pty Ltd acted as sole lead manager to the placement.

The Mahenge project has a JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate of 212 million tonnes at 7.8% TGC and also has ore reserves of 70 million tonnes at 8.5% TGC.

These ore reserves support a mine life of up to 350,000 tonnes of graphite per annum for a reserve life of 16 years.