Tungsten West looks to cash-in on 'green transition' with AIM float

Tungsten West is looking to float on the Alternative Investment Market via an institutional placing and subscription.

The tungsten and tin miner, which is focussed on recommencing production at the Hemerdon mine in Devon, England also announced that it had conditionally raised £39.0m before expenses from the offering of 65m new shares issued at 60.0p each.

"The medium-term reduced new mine supply in global tungsten mines, in addition to [tungsten and tin's] roles in the 'Green Transition' megatrend, underpins the positive future price environment. The Hemerdon mine is a unique opportunity for the UK to create its own supply chain in a strategically important mineral.

Hemerdon is the world's third-largest tungsten resource with an extensive reserve of roughly 63.3m tonnes together with 37.4m of saleable aggregate material and an 18.5 year life for the mine.

The latter could be increased through investment, the company said.

The new shares offered represented approximately 36.7% of the company's issued shared capital.

Funds raised via the offer were on top of a further £36.0m of project financing provided by a fund managed by Orion Resource Partners.

A substantial amnount of investment already in place also meant that rebuild was only expected to take 12 months with parts of the restart project already underway.

Of those monies, £44.6 would go towards improving works at Hemerdon and another £12m for general corporate overheads, including marketing expenses and for other planned capital expenditures and working capital expenses.

Together, planned improvements to the existing processing plant were expected to raise its operating time from about 53% under its previous operator to the industry standard of approximately 81%.

Another £3.1m would be used to pay for admission and offer-related fees.

Admission to trading on AIM was expected to take place on 21 October with a market capitalisation of roughly £106.2m.