StratMin Global secures $1.5m loan against shares in Bass Metals

The AIM-listed company agreed to assign security and voting rights over 75m of its Bass Metal shares to a corporate investor, in return for a 12-month non-recourse loan starting on 27 October, which would be repaid in some or all of the Bass Metals shares.

The loan would be used for general working capital and to fund the company's investment commitment with the Tirupati Resources Mauritius joint-venture, the owner of the Vatomaina graphite project in Madagascar.

Chief executive Brett Boynton said: "By working with existing Bass stakeholders and leveraging the value of the voting block held by the company, we were able to secure funding on terms well in excess of the open market value of the Bass shareholding.

“This facility gives us capacity to fully fund our commitment to our joint-venture partner without any delay to the planned development of the Vatomaina project.”

StratMin became the largest shareholder in Australian Stock Exchange listed Bass Metals following the divestment of the company’s Graphmada investment to Bass Metals in September.

There will be no interest payable during the term of the loan and StratMin will assign all voting rights to the Bass Metals shares on the first drawdown.

The redemption amount of the Loan is set at 120% of the amount drawn down, plus 50% of the value of the Bass Metals shares in excess of that quantity, with StratMin retaining 50% of any value of the Bass shares over that of the basic redemption value.

Shares in StratMin Global Resources were up 20% to 1.80p at 1104 BST.