Trigon wants N$60 million for Kombat restart
By Hilary Mare
CANADIAN mining firm, Trigon Metals plans to raise N$60 million to fund the restart of the Kombat copper mine in the Otavi mountainlands.
Funds would also be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.
The explorer and developer on Tuesday announced a non-brokered private placement financing of up to 12.5 million units.
Each unit would comprise of a common share and one-half of a common share purchase warrant. Each warrant would entitle the holder to acquire one share at N$6 a share for a period of 24 months after the closing of the offering.
The company’s stock fell sharply last week. The company said recently it had been able to source used equipment as spares for the mill from other mills in Namibia, which had brought down costs and improved timelines. Some new equipment for the processing plant had been manufactured by Yantai Xinhai Industry & Trade Co and would be shipped from China in the coming weeks, Trigon said last Monday.
It said other long lead orders from local Namibian and South African suppliers were also nearing completion and various key plant components were expected to be have been delivered during August and September.
“We have worked closely with Xinhai over the past few months, and we’re excited to see everything coming together as planned, on time and on budget,” president and CEO Jed Richardson said last week.
“The order of long lead time items marks a point of no return in the restart process. Given the response from debt finance and the strength of the copper price, we are confidently moving forward with our production plans,” he added.
Trigon expects to restart open pit mining before year-end, targeting initial production of 4 000 tonnes of copper in concentrate for the 2022 calendar year.
Production was expected to increase to 14 500t in 2024 with the addition of the underground mine, it said in July.
The figures were lower than the company’s anticipated initial production of 6 000t in 2022, increasing to 16 500t, outlined in May.
The mining licence was renewed in June for Kombat, which previously produced about 12.5 million tonnes of copper between 1962 and 2008 at a grade of 2.6 percent.
Trigon received environmental clearances in July.
The company also has the Silver Hill copper-silver project in Morocco, acquired last year.
Eric Sprott has increased his stake in Trigon to about 22 percent.
The company has US$2 million in cash, according to a presentation this month.
The project has a combined open pit and underground indicated mineral resources of 12.2 million tonnes at 1.94 percent copper, 13.65 g/t silver and 0.70 percent lead.