TNC Placement to Fund Great Australia Mine Restart and Copper Exploration

• Firm commitments received for a ~$15 million Placement (including ~$4.3 million in debt converted), with strong demand from leading global investor groups both domestically and offshore, providing endorsement of TNC’s growth strategy.
• TNC will use proceeds from the Placement, together with existing cash, for:
  • Restart of the Great Australia Mine, Queensland
  • Cloncurry exploration and mine life extension drilling
  • Further drilling and survey works at the Vero Resource targeting resource growth
  • Conversion of short-term loan from Tembo plus accrued interest to equity
  • Partial repayment of short-term working capital facility to Dyda Property Management
  • General working capital and the costs of the Placement
  • The Placement will provide significant balance sheet strength and flexibility to progress activities to support the restart of the Great Australia Mine to increase near-term cash-flows
• Additionally, term sheet signed with a specialist mine finance group to provide up to US$28m facility to support growth of the business (subject to due diligence and execution of definitive documentation).
• Copper sulphate production has continued to ramp-up in the December quarter and now cashflow positive.
• Expected additional cash-flows from the Great Australia Mine will support further exploration activities at the highly prospective Vero Resource, part of TNC’s Mt Oxide Project.
• Subject to shareholder & FIRB approval, TNC’s major shareholder Tembo Capital Holdings UK Ltd has provided a firm commitment for $6.5m in the Placement (including ~$4.3 million in debt to be converted).
• TNC Managing Director Marty Costello and Chairman Ian McAleese will also participate in the Placement, subject to shareholder approval.

True North Copper Managing Director, Marty Costello said: This Placement represents a substantial de-risking of the Great Australia Mine restart. We expect completion of the mining study for the Great Australia Mine and FID by early December 2023. We are laser focused on delivering on our stated objectives and creating value for our shareholders.

We are incredibly grateful to our existing shareholders for their loyal support and welcome new shareholders to the TNC register. The entire TNC team is working tirelessly to deliver on our strategy and repay the faith shown to us.

PLACEMENT OVERVIEW

The Placement will provide the Company with significant balance sheet strength and flexibility to progress activities to support the restart of the Great Australia Mine.

Tembo Capital Holdings UK Ltd (“Tembo”), a major shareholder of the Company, has provided a firm commitment, subject to shareholder and FIRB approval, subscribing for 54,166,667 New Shares under Tranche 2 of the Placement (including through conversion of the existing short-term working capital facility to equity at the Placement price). Conversion of the Tembo debt to equity and strengthening of the balance sheet will also assist TNC to unlock further liquidity via the targeted working capital facilities which are in very advanced stages of negotiation.

The Placement comprises the issue of approximately 125 million shares new fully paid ordinary shares (“New Shares”) at a price of $0.12 per New Share. The Placement will take place in two tranches:

• Tranche 1 to raise approximately $8.3 million via the issue of approximately 69.2 million New Shares utilising the Company’s placement capacity under ASX Listing Rule 7.1 (“Tranche 1”); and

• Tranche 2 to raise approximately $2.4 million in cash and approximately $4.3 million in debt converted via the issue of

55.8 million New Shares, subject to shareholder approval to be sought at a meeting of the Company expected to be held in December (“Meeting”) (“Tranche 2”). A notice of meeting will be dispatched to shareholders in due course.

Managing Director, Marty Costello and Chairman Ian McAleese have also subscribed for approximately 583,000 New Shares (collectively) in the Placement, subject to shareholder approval at the Meeting.

Click here for the full ASX Release

This article includes content from True North Copper, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.