EMP upsizes lithium financing to $5 million
EMP Metals Corp. [EMPS-CSE] on Monday said it is upsizing a previously announced non-brokered private placement financing, which is now expected to raise $5 million, up from an earlier $3 million target.
EMP is an exploration company with a portfolio of Saskatchewan lithium brine properties held in partnership with ROK Resources Inc. [ROK-TSXV].
The company said the private placement will consist of 8.3 million units priced at 60 cents per unit. Each unit will consist of one common share (comprising part of a unit share) and one half of one share purchase warrant (a unit warrant). Each unit warrant entitling the holder to purchase one additional share for 90 cents per unit warrant for up to 18 months after the issue date.
EMP can accelerate the expiry date is the closing price of the shares is equal to or greater than $1.25 for 10 consecutive trading days. In the event of an acceleration, the expiry date will be accelerated to a date that is 30 days after the company issues the acceleration notice via a press release.
The announcement comes after EMP said subsidiary company Hub City Lithium Corp. (HCL) has struck a purchase and sale agreement with Grounded Lithium to sell 33 sections (8,498 hectares) of undeveloped land in the Kindersley area of Saskatchewan
EMP and ROK Resources Inc. [ROK-TSXV] jointly own HLC, which holds 37 permits covering 86,050 hectares of subsurface Crown mineral dispositions in Saskatchewan. EMP has a 75% interest in HCL, with the balance held by ROK.
In a press release on February 21, 2023, EMP announced a successful drilling and multi-layer perforation and swap test of a wellbore on the HLC’s subsurface mineral dispositions located in the Viewfield area of Saskatchewan.
The company said third party laboratory testing returned lithium concentrations in the Duperow formation of up to 259 mg/l. According to public records, these test results are the highest lithium brine concentrations recorded in a brine in Canada to date.
“The results of the Viewfield 2-22 well are nothing short of incredible,’’ said EMP CEO Rob Gamley. The elevated lithium concentrations and high flow rates across six zones makes this a very exciting lithium brine well for our joint venture and for lithium exploration and development in Canada,’’ he said.
“Based on public data, these are the highest concentrations tested in Canada to date. Seeing such high lithium concentrations in six zones provides us with a second prospective area for development alongside the previously announced multi-zone Mansur Project.’’
The Viewfield area is located about 50 kilometres southeast of Mansur, where the company has an additional 47,360 acres of land. EMP recently announced results from a flow test of its second test well in the Mansur permit area. Third party testing returned lithium concentrations in the Duperow formation of up to 148 mg/l.