[miningmx.com] — COAL of Africa said it plans to raise about $100m in a placing mainly to bring the Vele project into production and to complete the acquisition of Rio Tinto’s Chapudi Coal project.
It also announced on Thursday it had entered into a new $40m revolving credit facility with JP Morgan Europe that is conditional on the miner raising a minimum of $75m in the placing.
The coal producer, with a market capitalisation of about just under £300m, plans to move up to London’s main market from the junior Alternative Investment Market.
Last month, Coal of Africa said full operations had resumed at the controversial Vele Colliery after South Africa lifted a water use suspension. The water use licence for the colliery, which is close to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, had been suspended since July.
The miner expects to produce its first coking coal from Vele in the first quarter of 2012, ramping up to an initial target of 1 million tonnes a year.
