Ardiden Limited (ASX: ADV) (Ardiden or the Company) is pleased to advise that it has received firm commitments for a placement of 500,000,000 paid ordinary shares to eligible institutional, professional, and sophisticated investors to raise approximately A$6.5 million before costs.
The Placement was oversubscribed and supported by both existing and new institutional and sophisticated investors.
The successful placement positions the Company to accelerate its Pickle Lake exploration program, which is expected to generate news-flow through the first half of CY2022. Ardiden's Directors intend to subscribe for 7,693,000 Shares ($100,000) in the Placement, subject to shareholder approval at a General Meeting planned for April 2022.
Placement proceeds will be used to advance Ardiden's exploration activities, including to progress drilling and exploration work programmes at its predominantly 100%-owned Pickle Lake Gold Project in Ontario, Canada. Bell Potter Securities Limited (Bell Potter) acted as Lead Manager to the Placement.
Commenting on the Placement, Managing Director & CEO, Robin Longley, said: 'This Placement permits us to more rapidly expand our drill program at Pickle Lake, which hosts numerous targets. As we reported last month, our drill program on the Western Hub has commenced at Esker. We continue to work with First Nations' representatives across our tenements, as well as on permitting and drill targeting with our internal technical team. The area has also experienced a significant increase in adjacent industry activity recently, including Evolution Mining Ltd's (ASX: EVN) staking of Greenfields tenements to the south of our land package. Additionally, Ardiden remains strongly leveraged to ongoing results from drilling at its 49% owned lithium joint venture with operator Green Technology Metals (ASX: GT1). In addition to a free-carry, Ardiden also owns 9.0m GT1 shares.'
Non-Executive Chairman, Bruce McFadzean, also commented: 'The strong support shown for the Placement is testament to the high prospectivity of the Company's projects and an endorsement of the technical and management team. We welcome the new institutions to the register and are excited by the potential of Ardiden's gold and lithium assets. It will be our focus to further build on this potential during the first half of CY2022.'
Details of the Placement
Shares under the Placement will be issued at $0.013 (Placement Price), representing a 20.1% discount to the 10-day volume weighted average price (VWAP) as of 8 February 2022. The majority of Shares to be issued pursuant to the Placement will be settled in a single tranche of 492,307,000 Shares ($6.4 million), utilising the Company's ASX Listing Rule 7.1 and 7.1A placement capacity. A second tranche of 7,693,000 Shares ($100,000) will be issued to the Company Directors, subject to shareholder approval, which will be sought at a general meeting in April. 40,025,030 broker options will be issued to the lead manager, subject to shareholder approval at the general meeting.
Contact:
Rob Longley
Tel: +61 8 6184 5938
Email: info@ardiden.com.au
Forward Looking Statement
This announcement may contain some references to forecasts, estimates, assumptions and other forward-looking statements. Although the company believes that its expectations, estimates and forecast outcomes are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that they will be achieved. They may be affected by a variety of variables and changes in underlying assumptions that are subject to risk factors associated with the nature of the business, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed herein. Investors should make and rely upon their own enquires and assessments before deciding to acquire or deal in the Company's securities.
ARDIDEN LIMITED 
