Global Geoscience raises $53m for Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project

Mining News - Sydney-based Global Geoscience has raised $53 million in a placement to advance the company’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Nevada.
The Rhyolite Ridge project is in development, with a definitive feasibility study (DFS) and environmental approvals expected to be completed by the second half of 2019. The $53 million will go towards the completion of the DFS, infill drilling to extend resources and general working capital.
Outside of general working capital and long-lead items, which are expected to take up to $16 million of the funds, the largest expenditure will be the resource infill drilling, at an expected cost of $13 million.
DFS completion, expansion drilling and pilot plant spending are budgeted at $7 million each, with pre-feasibility study (PFS) completion set at $3 million.
The money was raised through the issue of 130 million ordinary company shares at a cost of 41 cents per share, a discount of 7.9 per cent on Global’s last closing price on June 12 and a 10.9 per cent discount to its 10-day volume weighted average price (VWAP).
RPMGlobal helped to create an initial mining study for the open pit deposit in October last year, leading to a company production estimate of 2–4Mt/y, with around 8700t of lithium carbonate and 77,200t of boric acid per million tonnes.
Bernard Rowe, managing director of Global, said that Global had taken significant steps to de-risk development of the project, with studies showing strong potential as a low-cost, sustainable producer of lithium carbonate and boric acid.
The raising has increased Global’s overall cash balance to more than $85 million altogether, while its share price has grown by 200 per cent in nine months.
“The equity raising today provides funding for further drilling to test the strategic scale of the lithium-boron mineralisation within our claims and also put the company in a strong position to negotiate development funding with a wide range of parties,” Rowe said.
Comments from Global chair James Calaway also reflected the company’s growing confidence in the project, saying that the placement would allow Global to “maintain project momentum and ensure that where necessary we can accelerate progress to get this product into production”.