PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Minerals explorer Trek Metals will raise up to A$7.5-million in a share placement to fund a maiden drilling programme at Tambourah lithium project, in Western Australia.

The company on Thursday said it had received firm commitments for the placement of 75-million shares, priced at 6c each, from professional, sophisticated and institutional investors, to raise an initial A$4.5-million.

The company has also elected to accept oversubscriptions of an additional A$3-million in shares from directors of the company, and other investors introduced by the board, in a second tranche placement which would be subject to shareholder approval.

The share placement would include a one-for-three free attaching option, exercisable at 8.5c each and with an expiry date of two years from issue.

“This is a significant capital raising that will put Trek in a strong financial position as we embark on our maiden drilling programme at the Tambourah lithium project and progress exploration programmes across our other projects in the Pilbara,” said Trek CEO Derek Marshall.

“Tambourah is a hugely exciting target that has all the right ingredients for a lithium discovery, including high-grade spodumene rock chip of up to 3.07% lithium oxide, as announced by the company in October 2022 and November 2022, and we are very much looking forward to getting on the ground to get our maiden drill programme underway.

“2023 is set to be an exciting year for Trek, with plenty of targets to test. We now have a strong balance sheet to support these programmes and I would like to sincerely thank all our shareholders for their support,” Marshall added.

In addition to the maiden lithium exploration, Trek will also use the funds for ongoing metallurgical test work and resource infill and extension drilling at its Hendeka manganese project.