THE directors of Perth-based exploration company Ashburton Minerals have taken up their entitlement under the company’s recent non-renounceable entitlements issue.
Rick Crabb bought almost 15 million shares to maintain his stake in the company, followed by Peter Bradford who bought more than 8 million. Fellow director Tom Dukovcic bought the least amount of shares at a total cost of $22,000.
The offer was on the basis of one new share for every four shares held at an issue price of two cents per share to raise approximately $2.92 million.
The company says it intends to apply the funds raised by the offer to meet payments in relation to its Obi Gold project, fund diamond drilling and other exploration programs at Obi and for general working capital purposes.
It announced in November last year it had entered into an option agreement to buy a majority interest in a new gold project in Indonesia located on the island of Obi, south of Halmahera in eastern Indonesia.
Under the terms of the agreement, the company paid the owner of the project tenement, PT Eka Samudra Nusantara (EKA), $US100,000 for an initial four-week option period.
To fulfil the contract consideration the company needs to pay Eka $US1.5 million in three tranches to secure a 12-month option period. The company has already made a payment of the first of the three tranches to Eka of $US500,000. The remaining payments are due in June this year.
Curtis cashes up
THE executive chairman of ASX-listed rare earths company Lynas Corporation has disposed of 7 million of his shares within a period of a week.
The value of Nicholas Curtis’ shares totalled more than $43 million on January 25. A week later, he cashed out around $14.5 million, with the price per share ranging from $1.80 to $2.03.
The reason for the cash-out is unexplained. However, Lynas Corporation share prices have been on the increase during the past 12 months, with the lowest price at 48 cents in May of 2010 and the latest price, closing at $1.82.
