Latin is now funded to accelerate exploration and development approvals for its flagship Salinas project in Brazil after investors backed a $37.1m placement.
Firm commitments for the two tranche institutional placement priced at 10.5c per share were received from a number of specialist North American battery metals funds; Integra Lithium, the company’s largest shareholder; and Brazilian institutional funds BTG Pactual and JPG.
The addition of the latter two, who are Brazil’s largest investment bank and largest asset and wealth management institution respectively, to the company’s register highlights the positive attention that Latin Resources (ASX:LRS) has been attracting with its continued success at Salinas.
Recent drill results include 14m at 1.55% Li2O from 323m (SADD078) including 5m at 1.99% Li2O from 323m, and 12.59m at 1.46% Li2O from 274.46m (SADD080).
“We are delighted to announce the completion of the placement which has enabled us to introduce a number of high quality, North American, Brazilian and domestic institutions to the company’s register,” managing director Chris Gale said.
“The placement provides significant validation of Latin’s portfolio of assets and the company’s ongoing resource expansion drill program, feasibility studies and development approvals for Salinas.”
The first tranche of 326,666,667 shares to raise about $34.3m will be made under the company’s existing placement capacity while the second tranche to raise $2.8m will be subject to shareholder approval.
Salinas on the fast track
Proceeds from the placement will be used to fast track the Salinas project.
This includes an aggressive resource definition program to increase the size and Indicated JORC resource at the Colina deposit, which currently stands at 13.2Mt at 1.2% Li2O.
The ongoing 65,000m program is progressing well with 32,000m completed in 109 diamond holes while the recent addition of four rigs – to a total of eight rigs – is expected to allow drilling to be completed in mid-May to enable the resource upgrade process to begin in June.
Latin also plans to carry out further exploration work on the recently acquired tenure of 29,940ha north of the Colina Deposit.
Additionally, the company is now fully funded through to a resource upgrade, DFS, environmental studies and development licence approval application.
This includes the recent signing of a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with the State of Minas Gerais to reinforce their existing cooperation and streamline the approvals pathway for Latin to take the Colina deposit through feasibility studies and into production.
Metallurgical test work is also ongoing, with the final selection of a representative bulk sample for the next round of metallurgical test work in the final stages and drilling of large diameter PQ size drill core set to commence in late May.
This will follow on the existing Heavy Liquid Separation (HLS) test work which returned exceptional recoveries of over 80.5% of lithium recovered in a concentrate grading up to 6.6% Li2O.
This article was developed in collaboration with Latin 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.