Botswana Diamonds raises £525,000 to fund exploration programmes

AIM-listed miner Botswana Diamonds has raised £525,000 in order to fund drilling and exploration work at its South Africa and Botswana sites.

The proceeds will be used to fund ongoing kimberlite drilling at the Frischgewaagt site in South Africa and the first stage of the exploration programme in the Orapa and Gope areas of Botswana with Alrosa, a Russian diamond miner.

Botswana Diamonds raised £525,000 before expenses through a placing of 35m shares with new and existing investors at a price of 1.5p each.

The shares, which represent about 9.37% of the company's issued share capital, are expected to be admitted to trade on AIM on Thursday and following admission Botswana Diamonds will have over 373.41m shares in issue with voting rights.

Chairman John Teeling said: "Our exploration activities are gaining momentum. We are drilling at Frischgewaagt, our late stage exploration property in South Africa and we will start drilling in Botswana imminently. The Alrosa team will also commence their fieldwork in early March.

“The two drilling programmes will be completed by the end of March, after which we anticipate a period of six to eight weeks' analysis."

Shares in Botswana Diamonds were down 13.42% to 1.58p at 1048 GMT.