Atlas Iron Limited (ASX: AGO)
ASX RELEASE
15 JUNE 2009
ATLAS TO RAISE $116.7 MILLION TO FUND DEVELOPMENT OF PILBARA IRON ORE
PROJECTS
Atlas Iron Limited (ASX: AGO) (?Atlas?) is pleased to
announce that it will raise up to $116.7 million to help fund
the expansion of its Pilbara operations.
Atlas said the money would be raised through a $105
million placement to international and domestic clients of Hartleys
Limited (?Placement?) and an
$11.7 million Share Purchase Plan to existing shareholders ("SPP").
The funds
raised will be used predominantly to expand and develop Atlas? 100% owned
Pilbara iron ore projects, including an increase in production at its Pardoo
DSO Project and the commencement of production at Atlas' Wodgina
and Abydos DSO projects.
Atlas?
Managing Director, David Flanagan Atlas was ?delighted
with the support received for this capital raising from both new international
and domestic institutional investors, and its existing shareholders.?
The success of
this capital raising, which was very heavily oversubscribed, will enable Atlas
to execute its planned rapid paced development of its Pilbara iron ore business,? he said.
The details of
the capital raising are:
- shares
under the Placement and the SPP will be issued at $1.39 per share,
representing an 11% discount to the 30 day weighted average price of
Atlas' shares;
- the
Placement will be made in two tranches (Tranche 1 and Tranche 2);
- 42
million Tranche 1 shares, which are not subject to prior shareholder
approval, will be issued shortly;
- 33.5
million Tranche 2 shares will be issued subject to prior shareholder
approval at a meeting of Atlas' shareholders scheduled for 20 July 2009;
and
- 8.4 million shares will be offered under
the SPP to persons registered as shareholders of Atlas as at 12 June 2009, with SPP documentation to be
sent to eligible shareholders shortly. The SPP
will open on Monday, 22 June 2009 and close on Monday, 6 July 2009.
Background on Atlas
Atlas
is mining at its 100%-owned Pardoo Iron Ore Project, located 75 kilometres by
road from Port Hedland, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and
completed its first shipment of Pardoo Direct
Shipping Ore in early December 2008. Atlas is planning to export 1 million tonnes during its first 12 months of operations at the Pardoo Project, expanding following commissioning of the
Utah Point port facility. When combined with additional export tonnages from
its Wodgina and Abydos DSO Projects, Atlas is targeting
exports at an annualised rate of 6 million tonnes in 2010, growing to 12 million tonnes
by 2012.
For further
details, please contact
David Flanagan
Managing Director
Tel: +61 8
9476 7900