Kennedy Ventures secures funding for African Tantalum operations

1st Feb 2017 09:13

(ShareCast News) - Kennedy Ventures has raised £1.25m before expenses through a placing of 13.9m new shares at a price of 9p each. The company has an interest in the Tantalite Valley Mine through its stake in African Tantalum (Aftan).Net proceeds of the placing will be used by Aftan, the group's investee company, to implement the plant enhancements recently identified by Aftan with guidance from the company's new chief executive Larry Johnson.The funds will also be used to accelerate ongoing lithium studies that, if expected results are achieved, will open up the Lepidolite orebody and expedite work relating to other potentially value accretive by-products at TVM.Additionally the placing was to provide general working capital to ensure optimal end product performance within the market and implement industry benchmarking initiatives to ensure optimum pricing and cost efficiency across its entire operation.Production will continue throughout the implementation of the above process.Chief executive Larry F. Johnson said: "TVM represents one of the best quality tantalite mines I have seen during my long career in the industry. The upgrade and additional enhancements to the plant are designed to deliver efficiencies that will generate long-term cash flow benefits to Aftan and ultimately to the Company.He said he expected 2017 to be a transformational year for Aftan as the optimisation at TVM completes, Aftan further explores the licence area and Kennedy assesses new opportunities.The share price rose 23.68% to 11.75p at 1240 GMT on Wednesday.