Focus Graphite arranges $12 million equity facility
Focus Graphite Inc. [FMS-TSXV] said Monday it has arranged a $12 million equity facility with Alumina Partners (Ontario) Ltd., an affiliate of New York based private equity firm Alumina Partners LLC.
Focus Graphite said Alumina is prepared to invest up to $12 million in the company over a 24-month period for working capital and general corporate purposes, including to advance both of the company’s flake graphite projects in northern Quebec.
Focus said it may, subject to certain conditions, elect to have Alumina invest in private placements of up to $500,000. Each tranche shall be a private placement of units, to consist of one common share and one half of one common share purchase warrant, which will be exercisable for 36 months.
The units will be issued at a discount of 15% to 25% from the closing market price at the time of each tranche, and the warrants will be issued at a 25% premium over the closing market price at the time of each tranche.
In the first tranche that closed on July 2, 2021, the company completed a private placement for gross proceeds of $200,000 from Alumina, with Alumina receiving 2.96 million Focus Graphite units, consisting of a common share priced at $0.0675 per share and warrants to purchase 1.48 million common shares exercisable at $0.1125 per share for 36 months.
Focus Graphite shares advanced on the news, rising almost 6% or $0.005 to $0.09 on volume of 403,870. The shares currently trade in a 52-week range of 28 cents and $0.02.
Graphite, an industrial mineral that has previously been tied to steel production but is gaining investor attention because of surging global demand for graphite used in electrical vehicle batteries, fuel cells, power storage and other emerging next generation applications.
Graphite is the anode material in a lithium-ion battery and is the single largest component by weight. There are no substitutes, and almost all of it comes from China So, if electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla Motors Ltd. [TSLA-NASDAQ] and Volkswagon succeed in meeting just a fraction of their widely publicized sales targets, more graphite mines will be needed to support the required lithium-ion battery production.
Focus Graphite holds a 100% interest in the Lac Knife crystalline flake graphite deposit located in the Cote Nord region of Quebec. At approximately 15% graphitic carbon (Cg), Lac Knife is one of the highest grade flake graphite deposits in the world, Focus Graphite has said.
An updated resource released in January, 2014 showed a measured and indicated resource of 9.6 million tonnes, grading 14.77% Cg. On top of that is an inferred resource of 3.1 million tonnes of grade 13.25% Cg.
Focus Graphite’s 100%-owned Lac Tetepisca graphite property covers 5,503 hectares and is located in the southwest Manicouagan reservoir area, 234 kilometres northwest of Baie-Comeau in the Cote-Nord administrative region of Quebec.
The Lac Tetepisca discovery is also located 10 kilometres north of Mason Graphite Inc.’s [LLG-TSXV; MGPHF-OTCQX] Lac Gueret project in northern Quebec.