Fortuna Metals (ASX: FUN) has received firm commitments to raise $3.5 million to support its fast-tracking of the Mkanda and Kampini rutile and graphite projects in Malawi.
The company will issue approximately 31.8 million new shares at a price of $0.11 each—a 21.4% discount to the most recent closing price before the announcement, and a 17.7% discount to the stock’s 5-day volume-weighted average price.
With strong backing from the board and management, as well as from new and existing investors, the raising strengthens Fortuna’s balance sheet to approximately $7.4m.
Good Progress Made
The Mkanda and Kampini projects cover an area of 658 square kilometres due south of Sovereign Metals’ (ASX: SVM) Kasiya project, the largest rutile and the second largest flake graphite deposit in the world.
Fortuna reported earlier this week that the Malawi team was making good progress at Mkanda, with a total of 208 hand auger drill holes now completed at an average depth of 8.5m and drilling to continue until the Christmas break.
The company anticipates the receipt of soil sample assays in late November, with first assay results from the hand auger samples due in mid-December, and plans to follow up the results from the current program with aircore drilling from April next year.
The projects benefit from critical infrastructure availability, with the central region being approximately 20km from Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, and 25km from rail access.
Valuable Exploration Support
Chief executive officer Tom Langley said the oversubscribed raising would provide valuable support to Fortuna’s exploration plans.
“We eagerly await the first batch of rutile assays from the soil and hand auger samples to confirm the grade and scale of the potential mineralisation across our projects,” he said.
“We believe we are well placed to make a significant rutile discovery in the coming months.”
In addition to hand auger drilling at both Mkanda and Kampini, Fortuna intends to use the proceeds on aircore drilling of the saprock boundary to increase resource potential, various ssays, mineralogical and metallurgical analysis, and for general working capital.
