$8.5 Million Placement to Accelerate Balama North Graphite Project
Perth, July 17, 2014 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Triton Minerals Limited (
ASX:TON) ("Triton", "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has successfully completed a placement to institutional and sophisticated investors of 17 million fully paid ordinary shares at a price of $0.50 per share to raise $8.5 million ("Placement). GMP Securities acted as Lead Manager and Sole Bookrunner to the Placement that attracted significant interest and has allowed Triton to introduce a number of new Australian and International investors as shareholders of the Company.
Proceeds from the Placement will be used to accelerate the exploration and development program at the Balama North project, including advancing the current Diamond and RC drilling at the Nicanda Hill prospect, ongoing metallurgical test work, scoping, pre-feasibility test work and other activities.
The Placement will be completed in a single tranche under ASX Listing Rule 7.1 and is expected to settle on 24 July 2014.
Commenting on the Placement, Triton Minerals Managing Director Brad Boyle said: "The significant support we have received from existing shareholders and new institutional and sophisticated investors reaffirms the Company's belief that Balama North is emerging as a world class graphite project.
The Placement now gives us the ability to increase ownership in our projects and rapidly advance the Balama North project and in particular to continue to add value for all of our shareholders.
Putting the Company in a well funded position with the proceeds from the Placement enables us to also maintain an aggressive drilling program at the Nicanda Hill prospect where we presently have two diamond and one RC rig on site. Nicanda Hill contains multiple high grade graphite zones that are being targeted and remains open in all directions.
Subject to further exploration success, Triton is seeking to use the funds from the Placement to delineate an Inferred Resource, as classified by the JORC 2012 guidelines, on the Nicanda Hill prospect by the fourth quarter of 2014.
In parallel with our drilling campaign, metallurgical and mining studies that are well underway, Triton is expecting to release the results of the scoping study which has been expanded to include the Nicanda Hill exploration results, once an Indicated Resource, as classified by the JORC 2012 guidelines has been defined."
Triton Acquires 100% of the Graphite Projects
Triton is also pleased to announce that after recent discussions with Triton's joint venture partner Grafex Ltd (Grafex), Triton and Grafex have agreed to terms that allows Triton to acquire the remaining 40% interest in all of the Mozambique graphite projects known as Balama North, Balama South and Ancuabe (the "Projects").
Transaction Terms
Late on 16 July 2014, Triton and Grafex executed a binding agreement, which allows Triton to acquire the remaining 40% interests in the Projects on the following terms:
- Triton shall pay Grafex US$20 Million in a combination of cash and ordinary fully paid Triton shares.
- The payment is structured in two tranches. Each tranche being US$5 million cash and US$5 million in Triton scrip. The first tranche payment is due fourteen (14) days after the settlement of the Placement and the second tranche is payable 6 months thereafter.
- As further consideration, Grafex shall be entitled to receive five (5) million unlisted Triton options, with an exercise price of $0.70 and term of three (3) years.
- Upon the payment of Tranche 1, Triton's interest in the Projects shall increase to an eighty (80%) percent interest.
- Upon the payment of Tranche 2, Triton's interest in the Projects shall increase to 100% with Grafex becoming a wholly owned Mozambique operating subsidiary of Triton.
Commenting on the transaction, Triton Minerals Managing Director Brad Boyle noted "Triton being able to acquire 100% of the Mozambique graphite projects is a very significant milestone for the Company. This now provides Triton with full control over the Projects and in particular allows the Company to control the rapid advancement and development of the Company's key graphite project at the Nicanda Hill prospect."
Triton is extremely confident of continued exploration success at the Nicanda Hill prospect and is looking forward to providing further exploration updates to the market, as the information becomes available.
About Triton Minerals Ltd
Triton Minerals Limited (ASX:TON) is an ASX listed, responsible mineral explorer and resource management company headquartered in Perth, Australia.
Led by a highly experienced management team, Triton Minerals' vision is to grow shareholder's value through discovery or development of base metal, gold and other precious metal deposits.
Triton has made excellent progress with its three Graphite projects located in the Cabo Delgado Province in Mozambique, with the program successfully identifying a number of graphitic exposures.
It is the Company's belief that the Mozambique, Balama North Project could host multiple and very substantial world class graphite deposits.
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