Arian Silver raises £600k to advance its exploration in Zacatecas, Mexico

Specifically, Arian Silver said, this was to seek and assess the feasibility of additional lithium acquisitions, some of which were currently being negotiated as previously announced.

The placing was of 120m units at 0.5p apiece through broker Beaufort Securities Ltd.

Each unit comprised one new common share and one new share warrant that entitled the holder to subscribe for one Share at 0.6p.

Arian Silver said that 12m warrants would be issued to Beaufort, each at an exercise price of 0.6p.

The expiry date of each Warrant will be two years from the date of admission of the Placing Shares to trading on AIM.

Chief executive Jim Williams said the continuing support of investors had again made it possible to strengthen the company's balance sheet.

It put Arian Silver in a stronger position to progress not only its silver projects, but perhaps more importantly, given the current price and demand, its lithium assets.

"To fully evaluate our current lithium options requires exploration methods that have not been financially viable for us, until now," said Williams.

"We believe greater lithium concentrations occur deeper within the salars and the results so far obtained from the surface exploration are merely indicative of the presence of lithium."

At 10:27 BST, shares in AIM-quoted Arian Silver were down 12.5% to 0.7p each.