Sirius to start work on North York Moors potash mine in January after $900m fundraising – by Emily Gosden (The Telegraph – November 2, 2016)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Sirius Minerals plans to start the long-awaited construction of its $2.9bn potash mine under the North Yorkshire moors in January after raising about $900m through a share placing and bond issue.

The Aim-listed company on Wednesday announced a £300m-£400m ($400m-$490m) equity raise and $400m-$450m bond offering. The new shares were priced at between 20p and 30p, sending Sirius’s share price down about 8pc to 34p.

Combined with a $300m investment it secured last week from Australian mining billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, the fundraising completes the $1.2bn Sirius needs for the first phase of construction of the project near Whitby.

Chris Fraser, chief executive, said: “This is the major milestone that we have been working towards to actually have the funds to start construction and move from a development project into a construction project.”

The fundraising has to be approved by shareholders on November 25. Mr Fraser said the company would then “start mobilising contractors basically as soon as the financing is settled”.

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