Toronto-based
The funds were made available by Rothschild Australia Golden Arrow Investors, part of the global Rothschild group, which will nominate one director to BacTech’s board.
The equity portion consists of a placement of 2 million shares priced at 50 each, whereas the debt portion consists of a $1-million convertible note bearing interest at 10% and having a conversion price of 60 per share.
Included in the deal are 1.7 million warrants allowing the holder to buy a BacTech share for $1.10 over two years.
The money will be used, in part, to help fund a chalcopyrite bioleaching joint venture with Mexican silver major
Peoles has agreed to spend up to US$4.4 million on a feasibility study for a bioleaching-treatment and copper-recovery plant with an annual capacity of up to 25,000 tonnes of metal.
The study calls for construction of a 5-tonne-per-day pilot plant at Monterrey, Mexico, due for completion in six months. Feed for the pilot plant will come initially from Peoles’ existing mines.
The rest of the money raised by BacTech will be used to evaluate and acquire interests in other projects amenable to the company’s proprietary bioleaching technology.
At BacTech’s annual meeting, held recently in Toronto, Chairman Alan Spence said his company was carrying out laboratory-scale work on three more projects and would soon be making an announcement regarding one of these.
The company recently agreed to sell a licence for a gold plant at Laizhou, China, where design work is under way.
BacTech is also searching for a suitable project to try heap bioleaching chalcopyrite ore.
Commenting on the BacTech-Mintek bioleaching alliance, Mintek’s Peter Scott said that it “could well turn into a very significant business. We see it as a very, very big part of our future, so we’re going to make sure it works.”
For the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 1999, BacTech posted a net loss of $1.2 million (14 per share) on revenue of $250,296, compared with a loss of $1.6 million (19) on revenue of $360,258 during the previous 12-month period.
For the first quarter ended Dec. 31, 1999, the company lost $155,499 (2) on revenue of $224,213, compared with a loss of $250,231 (3) on revenue of $10,773 during the same period in 1998.
Also at the meeting, shareholders voted to change BacTech’s name to
BacTech and Mintek’s chief rival in the development of bioleaching technology, London-based
In early March, the base metal major announced a joint venture with Chilean state-owned Corporacion Nacional del Cobre (Codelco) to develop biotechnology applications for the processing of copper and molybdenum.
The partners plan to spend US$20 million building a pilot plant at the Mansa Mina deposit, near Codelco’s huge Chuquicamata copper mine in northern Chile.
The work will include collecting a bulk sample and performing flotation tests in preparation for a 20,000-tonne-per-year bioleaching plant.
The partners have been working on improving the technology since 1997, with tests conducted at Billiton’s South African research centre and at Chuquicamata.
Be the first to comment on "BacTech raises funds for bioleaching"