Goyder-backed DevEx raises up to $21.1m to drill flagship uranium, rare earths projects

Institutional and sophisticated investors back DevEx’s $10m placement at 30c/sh
Another $11.1m sought through fully-underwritten entitlement offer to existing shareholders
Chairman Tim Goyder to take up full entitlement
Proceeds will fund expanded drilling at Nabarlek uranium and Kennedy rare earths projects

DevEx has received strong support from sophisticated and professional investors who have made firm commitments for a $10m placement to fund ongoing drilling at its Nabarlek uranium and Kennedy rare earths projects.

At Nabarlek, the company holds a dominant 4,700km² tenement package in the Alligator Rivers uranium province – a region in the NT that is known for its world-class, high-grade uranium deposits, with over 500 million pounds of uranium in mined and current resources.

Specifically, DevEx Resources (ASX:DEV) is targeting high-grade uranium surrounding the historical Nabarlek uranium mine, where 24Mlbs at 1.84% U3O8 was produced, making it Australia’s highest grade uranium mine.

Ongoing drilling at the U40 prospect has returned uranium equivalent intercepts of up to 1% eU3O8 across multiple holes, extending high-grade uranium mineralisation south of previous intercepts along the U40 Fault Zone.

In Queensland, step-out aircore drilling at the Kennedy ionic clay-hosted rare earths element (REE) project has extended the distribution of significant total rare earth oxide (TREO) mineralisation from surface over the broader project area.

Notably, the assays demonstrate that important and high-value rare earth elements such as praseodymium, neodymium, dysprosium and terbium, which are essential in the manufacture of the permanent rare earth magnets used in electric vehicles and numerous other renewable energy applications are present.

Equally importantly, metallurgical testing has already demonstrated rapid recoveries by desorption of REE in the first 30 minutes using an ammonium sulphate (AMSUL) solution in weak acidic conditions (pH4).

This is a strong indicator that mineralisation at the project is truly ionic in nature, which it much sought after due to being easier to process.

Placement to underpin expansion of successful drilling

DevEx’s successes to date have no doubt played a big part in existing and new institutional and sophisticated investors choosing to subscribe for about 33.3 million shares priced at 30c each – a 15.3% discount to the 30-day volume weighted average price – to raise $10m.

Additionally, the company is looking to raise up to $11.1m through a non-renounceable entitlement offer to existing shareholders of 1 new share for every 10 shares held.

Shareholders who take up their full entitlement may apply for additional new shares under the top-up facility.

Chairman and major shareholder Tim Goyder – best known for his success with Chalice Mining and Liontown Resources – has committed to taking up his full entitlement, which along with other directors, accounts for $2.2m of the entitlement offer.

Proceeds from the placement and entitlement offer will be used to expand drilling at Nabarlek and Kennedy. The entitlement offer is fully underwritten by Bell Potter Securities.

It will also place the company in a strong position to advance several exciting early-stage projects including recent earn-in arrangements at the Murphy West uranium project in the NT and the Highway nickel project in WA.

“The capital raising allows us to increase drilling momentum across our two key projects – the Nabarlek uranium project in the NT and the Kennedy ionic clay-hosted rare earth project in Queensland,” managing director Brendan Bradley said.

“Against the backdrop of the most favourable environment for uranium exploration in over a decade, we have been delivering exciting results from Nabarlek, with shallow high-grade mineralisation encountered at several prospects, surrounding the historic Nabarlek mine.

“Meanwhile, at Kennedy we are currently scoping out the potential scale of what could be a game-changing discovery in an entirely new rare earths province.

“We are delighted with the response from investors to this raising, which reflects the quality of our projects and their potential to deliver significant value for our shareholders.”

This article was developed in collaboration with DevEx Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.