The King Island Scheelite Limited (ASX: KIS) share price is slipping 6% into the red this afternoon and now trades at 16 cents each.
Kind Island shares are trending down today after the Australian mining company announced a key update earlier.
Here's what we know.
What did King Island Scheelite announce?
King Island announced that it has secured funding commitments to proceed with the redevelopment of its wholly owned Dolphin Tungsten Project in Tasmania.
It also delivered an investor presentation on the raising, outlining the price.
Announced today was the completion of a $31 million equity raise at 14 cents per share, which also sees King Island investors' share count diluted by 222 million shares.
There are 2 tranches to the placement, made up of a blend of sophisticated and institutional investors plus the company's debt holders.
That price of 14 cents per share on which the equity raise was completed, represents a 19.4% discount to the company's 15-day volume weighted average share price as per the release, and a 12.5% discount to its current share price.
Kind Island Scheelite has raised a total of $88 million in 2021 to finance the redevelopment of the Dolphin site, including a $10 million leasing facility currently in negotiations.
The company intends to fund the purchase of "key equipment, mobile mining equipment, processing plant development, civil/infrastructure construction, working capital associated therewithin" with the net proceeds.
Consequently, the Dolphin tungsten project is expected to produce its first concentrate in the March quarter of 2023, as per the release.
Investors don't appear to be impressed by the moves, perhaps given the King Island Scheelite share price's performance this year to date.
Plus, an additional 222 million shares on issue means that current shareholders will be diluted by that amount.
As such, the value of their holdings will diminish slightly as the company's equity value is re-adjusted from the share issuance.
What did management say?
Speaking on the announcement, King Island Scheelite's executive chairperson Johan Jacobs said:
Our strategy has allowed us to move forward with our plan to redevelop King Island's Dolphin Tungsten Mine, which hosts one of the few remaining high quality tungsten deposits in the Western world. Having secured commitments for the funding, we can now continue to execute on our vision to develop world class tungsten mining operations in Tasmania.
King Island Scheelite share price snapshot
The King Island Scheelite share price has booked outsized returns over this past year to date, climbing 60% since January 1.
As such, shareholders have clipped the ticket on a whopping 167% gain over the past 12 months, more than 6x the return of the S&P/ASX 200 index (ASX: XJO)'s climb of 25% in that time.
