The Renascor Resources Ltd (ASX: RNU) share price isn't going anywhere on Wednesday.
That's because this morning, the battery materials explorer requested a trading halt.
Why is the Renascor share price paused?
The Renascor share price was halted this morning so the company could undertake a fully underwritten institutional placement.
According to the release, the placement aims to raise approximately $70 million from institutional investors at 27.5 cents per share.
While this represents a 14% discount to its last close price, it is significantly higher than where the Renascor share price was trading 12 months ago, as you can see below.
Why is it raising funds?
Renascor advised that the proceeds will be used to fund the development of the Siviour Battery Anode Material (BAM) Project in South Australia.
This follows the recent approval from the South Australian Department of Energy and Mining of the Program for Environment Protection and Rehabilitation (PEPR) for its proposed Siviour Mine and Concentrator in South Australia.
Management believes the placement is another successful step toward Renascor's goal of powering Australia's clean energy transition through the development of its vertically integrated manufacturing operation to produce sustainable and ethically-sourced battery anode material for the lithium-ion battery market.
Renascor's managing director, David Christensen, commented:
Renascor's ambition is to become a reliable supplier of 100% Australian-made purified spherical graphite for lithium-ion battery anode makers worldwide. The funds raised via this Placement, together with the recently received PEPR approval, bring us significantly closer to realising this objective, as we look to accelerate our development timeline by bringing forward the commencement of construction of the Siviour mine and concentrator.
We now look forward to completing our Optimised BAM Study and ultimately reaching a Final Investment Decision next year. On behalf of Renascor board and management, I wish a warm welcome to our new shareholders and thank all our existing institutional and retail shareholders for their ongoing support.
