A Subiaco explorer has raised $57.2 million to start developing the Jericho copper mine over in Queensland as prices for the red metal descend from record highs set at the start of the week.
AIC Mines offered new shares to institutional and sophisticated investors at 52¢ apiece, an 11.9 per cent discount on its last close, under the Argonaut and Shaw and Partners-led raising. Proceeds are going towards expanding a 3km underground link between the Jericho deposit and its Eloise mine.
Shares in the company fell more than 9.3 per cent to just over the offer price at 54¢ on Friday. The raising comes as local brokers observe a slight uptick in equity capital markets activity, that has been downbeat for the past two years.
The developer’s cash call coincides with a dramatic week for copper. On Monday the metal reached the peak of its bull run and an all-time high of over $US11,000 ($16,656) a tonne.
The upshot beat the expectations of Macquarie, which at the start of the year had been correctly upbeat on prices for 2024 but still only pencilled the commodity go for about $US8125/t.
But Monday’s high was swiftly followed by a jarring plummet clocked by Bloomberg at the commodity’s biggest intraday fall in two since July 2022. It comes signs of weaker demand for the metal from China.
By the end of the week prices had settled at about $US10,359.
Meanwhile, global heavyweight miners Anglo American and BHP are in the throes of negotiations for a deal that could see a suite of sought-after copper assets transferred to the Big Australian.