Viridis nabs $11.5M raise to fast-track Brazilian | Australian Markets

Viridis Mining and Minerals has supercharged its conflict chest with a closely oversubscribed $11.5 million placement from a raise that drew in heavyweight institutional curiosity and despatched its share price up about 20 per cent to $1.19.

The deal was struck at 91 cents per share representing a modest 9 per cent low cost to the final traded price, however unusually, at a 13 per cent premium to the 10-day quantity weighted average price – a uncommon feat within the small-cap space and a testomony to the project’s pull.

Bringing critical firepower to the desk, Brazil’s institutional powerhouse JGP Asset Management supplied cornerstone backing by chipping in $5 million.

Known for its rigorous due diligence and deep native networks, JGP has additionally brings its regulatory and strategic advisory nous to the project, which may show invaluable as Viridis appears to commercialise Colossus.

In a vote of confidence from the highest, Viridis chairman Jon Parker tinned up with a $250,000 dedication, subject to shareholder approval. Meanwhile the company’s current memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Brazilian financiers ORE Investments and Régia Capital flagged the potential of an extra US$30 million (A$46 million) to circulation in by means of a staged, non-brokered personal placement.

Once the position funds are settled and the MOU is nutted out, all up Viridis may very well be sitting on a hefty $58.5 million in funding – enough to propel the company effectively previous closing investment resolution (FID) and into early construction.

This funding ensures we’re well-capitalised past closing investment resolution and into early project execution. The robust assist from institutional traders, together with cornerstone investor JGP Asset Management, is a clear endorsement of Colossus’ scale, high quality, and strategic significance as one of the few uncommon earths initiatives succesful of underpinning a vertically built-in provide chain exterior China.

Adding main punch to its plans, Viridis and its three way partnership accomplice Viridion additionally revealed yesterday they’ve been handpicked by two of Brazil’s premier development banks to fast-track the duo’s magnet recycling and uncommon earths oxide manufacturing initiative beneath a national joint assist plan.

According to the company, this assist pathway unlocks a suite of public funding choices starting from low-interest loans to equity injections and even potential grant funding to supercharge the project’s financial runway.

Last month, Viridis unveiled its long-awaited prefeasibility research, which confirmed Colossus, with its easy metallurgy, as a world class high-grade ionic clay deposit, succesful of working from an uber-low price base.

Boasting a hefty pre-tax internet current worth of US$1.41 billion (A$2.16 billion), the project is forecast to generate a staggering US$5.64 billion (A$8.66 billion) in whole income over a 20-year mine life, based mostly on a conservative US$90 per kilogram price for the sought-after battery metals neodymium and praseodymium.

Even if the numbers had been adjusted to accommodate right now’s softer spot price of US$63/kg, the economics nonetheless stack up, delivering a sturdy US$2.57 billion (A$3.95 billion) in cashflow, proving the project’s skill to trip out the commodity cycle.

Base case annual working cashflow is projected are available at US$197 million (A$302 million), with the upside situation at US$111/kg lifting that determine to a scorching US$260 million (A$399 million) a yr.

As Viridis nails down financing, the company plans to use the funds to construct a combined uncommon earth carbonate trial plant, full its definitive feasibility research, progress regulatory approvals and drill new zones adjoining to the prevailing useful resource.

Permitting is effectively superior with an environmental affect evaluation submitted earlier this yr and the certificates of regularity for land use already secured from native authorities.

Viridis says the subsequent 12 months might be jam full of milestones, together with technical de-risking, industrial negotiations and early-stage engineering, in efforts to fast-track company plans by turning into one of the West’s few vertically built-in uncommon earths suppliers.

With premium assist from deep-pocketed traders, endorsement from Brazil’s prime financial establishments, and a standout project in its back pocket, Viridis seems to be gearing up to shake the foundations of the Western uncommon earths provide chain – even in a weak commodity price atmosphere and all with a stack of money within the bank.

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