Ardea Resources raises $10m as cobalt stocks race ahead

Cobalt stocks were on the move today as explorer Ardea Resources announced it had raised $5.54 million to speed up drilling at its Kalgoorlie Nickel Project cobalt zones.

Ardea (ASX:ARL) raised $4.4 million from retail shareholders earlier this month at 72.5c a share and issued another 7.6 million shares to sophisticated investors this week at the same price.

Ardea will have $12 million in cash once the placement is finalised.

Ardea will use the cash to speed up drilling as well as finalise feasibility studies for the proposed mine and to work on non-core gold and base metal projects.

Shares in Ardea were still suspended during morning trade, and last closed at 88c — near the top of its 52-week range of 17c to $1.03.

Cobalt companies were enjoying a strong morning on the ASX.

Cobalt Blue Holdings (ASX:COB) was up 15 per cent and Cobalt One (ASX:CO1) was up 5 per cent.

Neither company has released any news to the market since the start of September.

European Cobalt (ASX:EUC) was up 3.4 per cent after securing a new cobalt licence over an old copper mine in Slovakia.

On Thursday, cobalt and copper miner Red Mountain Mining shot up 15 per cent after announcing that it will be launching a cobalt-copper exploration project in the Democratic Republic of Congo this month.