The Sayona Mining Ltd (ASX: SYA) share price has returned to trading following the company's latest capital raise.
At the time of writing, the lithium explorer's shares are swapping hands at 21.75 cents, up 6.1%.
Sayona Mining shares resume trading
Investors are buying Sayona Mining shares following the company's successful institutional placement.
In a release to the ASX today, Sayona Mining advised it has received firm commitments to raise $190 million from global institutional, professional and sophisticated investors.
Approximately 1 billion new ordinary shares will be issued at a price of 18 cents each to participating investors. The offer represents a discount of 12.2% on the last closing price of 20.5 cents per share.
The company said most of the placement proceeds would be used to fund its North American Lithium (NAL) operation in Québec, Canada. Sayona has allocated around $100 million to restart spodumene concentrate production.
Management stated that the NAL remained on schedule for its first spodumene concentrate production in the first quarter of 2023. NAL concentrator commissioning is forecasted for late in the third quarter to early in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The remaining funds will be applied to the following:
- Authier development ($35 million);
- Moblan evaluation and feasibility study update ($25 million);
- Exploration and project evaluation ($15 million);
- Working capital and offer costs ($15 million).
In addition, Sayona Mining's recent pre‐feasibility study for NAL demonstrated the operation's technical and financial viability. This will form the basis of a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) sometime in the second half of 2022.
Sayona Mining managing director Brett Lynch commented:
This placement is a major vote of confidence in our ability to transform NAL into a sustainable and profitable producer of key battery metals.
I would like to thank all our investors, both existing and new, for backing Sayona as we advance towards becoming the first local producer of spodumene in North America and ultimately moving downstream to capture even greater value‐add from our expanding lithium resource base.
About the Sayona Mining share price
Despite sinking 40% in a month, the Sayona Mining share price is up by 378% over the past 12 months.
Year to date, its shares have zipped 65% higher following investor hype around the lithium space.
Sayona Mining presides a market capitalisation of roughly $1.47 billion and has more than 7.18 billion shares on its registry.
