The Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO) share price had a month to forget in August.
Core Lithium shares closed on 31 July trading for 64 cents apiece.
Shares are up 2.5% at time of writing, trading for 41 cents apiece with a little more than half a trading day to go in the month. As it stands, shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) lithium stock are down a painful 35.9% in August.
For some context, the ASX 200 is down 1.5% over that same period.
What went wrong for the ASX 200 lithium stock in August?
Some of the headwinds facing the miner over the past month came amid a renewed slide in the lithium price. This sees most of its peers in the red for August as well, though none have fallen nearly as steeply.
The Core Lithium share price also faced some selling pressure following underwhelming spodumene production forecasts at its Finnis Lithium Project in the Northern Territory. The miner also recently increased its production cost guidance.
But most of the selling in August relates to the company's $120 million capital raising.
The new capital will be used to fund the development and growth of the Finnis Lithium Project. Management said it would focus on early works and further mineral exploration at BP33, the second proposed mine at Finnis.
Why did that put the stock under heavy pressure?
Well, because management opted to issue shares at a very steep discount.
Core Lithium announced the successful completion of a $100 million share placement to institutional and sophisticated investors on 17 August.
And existing shareholders were clearly not pleased with the issue price of 40 cents per share. This was more than 26% below the prior trading day's closing price of 54.5 cents per share.
Indeed, much of the month's damage was inflicted on that single day, with the Core Lithium share price collapsing 24.8% on the day of the announcement.
But the pain from the capital raise wasn't quite over.
On Monday, 28 August, Core Lithium opened its share purchase plan (SPP) to eligible investors with the intent of raising another $20 million to be used for working capital purposes. Those were also issued for 40 cents apiece.
And the stock closed the day down 4.8%.
Core Lithium share price snapshot
August added to the pain for shareholders, with the Core Lithium share price now down 71% over 12 months.
Longer term, the ASX 200 lithium miner remains up 720% over five years.
