AfriTin raises more than expected in placing and subscription

AfriTin Mining announced the completion of a fundraising totalling $22.8m on Friday, to expand its work at Uis and Brandberg, and for general working capital.

The AIM-traded firm said that following strong demand in the bookbuild, the total gross proceeds from the placing increased to $12.8m from $7.5m, resulting in aggregate gross proceeds from the fundraising of $22.8m.

It said the incremental proceeds would be used to further expand the Uis resource drilling programme, development at Brandberg West, and for general corporate purposes.

A total of 222,701,660 new shares were conditionally placed with new and existing institutional investors at a price of 5p each, conditional on their admission to trading on AIM.

In addition, the Orange Trust subscribed for 173,320,000 new shares at the placing price.

Together, AfriTin said 396,021,660 new shares would be issued under the placing and subscription, raising gross proceeds of £19.8m ($22.8m).

The placing and subscription shares together represented about 26% of the company's enlarged ordinary share capital after completion.

“On behalf of the board, I am delighted to announce completion and upsizing of the placing and subscription portion of the wider $48.3m proposed funding package - now $53.6m as a result of the upsizing,” said chief executive officer Anthony Viljoen.

“Bringing on additional funding partners to complete this package, alongside Standard Bank, has the potential to position AfriTin at the forefront of the tech metals sector.”

“We are excited to open up a new province in Namibia targeting a globally significant lithium resource, bringing our lithium and tantalum revenue streams online, alongside significantly accelerating our existing tin operation for its next phase of development.”

At 1548 BST, shares in AfriTin were down 6.73% at 5.08p.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.