Alliance Mineral receives all payments from Burwill under share placement exercise

ALLIANCE Mineral Assets announced on Dec 5 it has received all payments from Hong Kong-listed Burwill Commodity under a share placement exercise, which concluded with the fourth and final tranche on Nov 7.

Alliance said that the additional money will help fund the first shipment of lithium concentrate from its Bald Hill mine project, where it has partnered Australia-listed Tawana Resources in a joint venture.

Catalist-listed Alliance said in early October it was placing A$19.575 million (S$20.8 million) of shares to Burwill Commodity as its auditor flagged uncertainty about its ability to operate as a going concern if it is unable to raise more funds.

Burwill bought the shares in four tranches, with the subscription price representing discounts of up to 10 per cent of the stock's volume weighted average price of 29.72 Singapore cents on Sept 29.

Under the initial terms, the fourth tranche was to have been completed by Dec 31, 2017; the schedule was later accelerated as part of a few amendments Alliance announced in end-October.

Burwill - which is also Alliance's customer - has agreed to buy the 6 per cent Li2O concentrate over the first two years of production from the mine at a price of US$880 per tonne.

Alliance's chief executive Tjandra Pramoko said that construction on the Bald Hill mine project was progressing on schedule, and the miner was on target to produce the first shipment of lithium concentrate in the first quarter of 2018.

The company's shares were trading at 32.5 Singapore cents as at 3.03pm, down by three Singapore cents or 8.45 per cent.