Mkango conditionally raises £5.52m to help fund developments

Mkango Resources has now received TSX-V conditional approval for the issue of 23,007,495 common shares at a price of 24p, or 42 Canadian cents, each, raising £5.52m from new and existing investors, it announced on Monday, as it continued development in Malawi and Poland.

The AIM-traded firm said subscriptions from related parties, being Resource Early Stage Opportunities Company (RESOC) for 1,666,666 shares and Derek Linfield for 2,916,666 shares, remained conditional on approval from shareholders at a meeting on 6 October.

An investor that had previously indicated its intention to delay its subscription for 350,000 shares until after the meeting had now informed the company that it no longer wished to delay such subscription.

As a result, 18,424,163 new shares had now been issued under the placing, with the remaining 4,583,332 shares to be issued on those shareholder approvals.

In addition to the new shares, the company said it had issued an aggregate of 344,815 non-transferable warrants to the brokers who advised on the placing.

Each warrant would be exercisable for 12 months, with an exercise price of 24p eacgm and would be subject to a statutory hold period in Canada expiring four months and one day from issue.

“Mkango's corporate strategy is to develop new sustainable primary and secondary sources of neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium to supply accelerating demand from electric vehicles, wind turbines and other clean technologies,” the company’s board said in its statement.

“This integrated mine, refine, recycle strategy differentiates Mkango from its peers, uniquely positioning the company in the rare earths sector.

“Mkango is developing Songwe Hill in Malawi, with a feasibility study targeted for completion in the first quarter of 2022.”

Mkango said Malawi was known as ‘the warm heart of Africa’, adding that it was a “stable democracy” with existing road, rail and power infrastructure, and new infrastructure developments underway.

“In parallel, Mkango recently announced that Mkango and Grupa Azoty, Poland's leading chemical company and the second largest manufacturer of nitrogen and compound fertilisers in the European Union, have agreed to work together towards development of a rare earth separation plant at Pulawy in Poland.

“The separation plant will process the purified mixed rare earth carbonate produced at Songwe.

“Through its ownership of Maginito, Mkango is also developing green technology opportunities in the rare earths supply chain, encompassing neodymium magnet recycling as well as innovative rare earth alloy, magnet, and separation technologies.”

Maginito holds a 25% interest in UK rare earth magnet recycler HyProMag, with an option to increase its interest to 49%.

“Mkango also has an extensive exploration portfolio in Malawi, including the Mchinji rutile discovery, for which assay results are pending, in addition to the Thambani uranium-tantalum-niobium-zircon project and Chimimbe nickel-cobalt project.”

At 1029 BST, shares in Mkango Resources were up 0.21% at 30.06p.