The Board of Premier African Minerals Limited announced a subscription today to raise £2.4 million before expenses at an issue price of 0.23 pence per new ordinary share for the Zulu Lithium and Tantalum Project (“Zulu”).
The Company is on track to target revenue generating production by February 2024 following the installation of the 55 tons per hour ball mill and other associated structures which is expected to be completed by late January/early February 2024.
In addition, the Company has today conditionally settled payment of US$2.5 million (equivalent to £2 million) in invoices through the issue of 769,230,769 new ordinary shares of the Company to Zulu open pit mining contractor, JR Goddard Contracting (Pvt) Ltd, issued at a price of 0.26 pence per new ordinary share.
George Roach, CEO, commented, “The subscription and the contractor settlement should see Zulu through to production in February 2024.
We are deeply encouraged that the subscription was taken up by two institutional investors with one of the investors having supported the Company previously. We believe that the attraction of further institutional investment into Premier demonstrates the underlying value of Premier.
We would be remiss if we did not also express our appreciation to our Mining Contractor for their willingness to accept settlement of invoices in Premier shares”.
Subscription
Premier has today issued by way of a direct subscription (“Subscription”), conditional on admission, 1,043,478,261 new ordinary shares of nil par value (“Subscription Shares”) at a Subscription price of 0.23 pence per Subscription Share. The Subscription Shares will, when issued, rank pari passu in all respects with the existing ordinary shares. The direct subscription was arranged by Fox-Davies Capital Limited with just two participating institutions.
Application will be made for the Subscription Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and admission is expected to take place on or around 15 December 2023.
The Subscription has been arranged within the Company’s existing share authorities. Premier intends to use the proceeds of the Subscription principally to assist with the ongoing mining operations at Zulu including the necessary works for installation of the 55 tons per hour ball mill with its associated structures and general working capital.
Contractor Settlement
As previously announced on 25 August 2023, Zulu open pit mining contractor, JR Goddard Contracting (Pvt) Ltd (“JRG”) had agreed to accept payment of a limited number of future invoices until the end of December 2023, now extended to when commercial shipments begin at Zulu in Q1 of 2024, in new ordinary shares of the Company at the closing middle market price on the day prior to settlement.
Accordingly, the Company has today conditionally settled payment of US$2.5 million (equivalent to £2 million) in invoices through the issue of 769,230,769 new ordinary shares of the Company at the price of 0.26 pence (“Settlement Shares”).The issue of the Settlement Shares is conditional on the written confirmation that JRG has received Exchange Control Approval from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for receipt of the Settlement Shares (“Condition Precedent”). Application will be made for the Settlement Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM in due course.
Any sales of the Settlement Shares will be handled by Premier’s brokers under orderly market conditions with an initial 20-day lockup of the Settlement Shares following the date that the Conditional Precedent is satisfied.
Total Voting Rights
Following the issue of the Subscription Shares, the Company’s issued share capital consists of 26,916,580,705 Ordinary Shares, with voting rights.
This figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculation by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority’s Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
Market Abuse Regulations
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of UK Domestic Law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (“UK MAR”).
The person who arranged the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company was George Roach.
