Shares were issued at a price of 23c, a 14.8% discount to Kibaran’s last closing price.

Euroz Securities was syndicate arranger and lead bookrunner, while Argonaut Securities and Taylor Collison were joint lead managers.

The proceeds will be used to accelerate work at the Epanko graphite project in Tanzania.

Kibaran has been conducting studies into expanding production from the planned rate of 40,000 tonnes per annum to 60,000tpa.

The company will also conduct a feasibility study into downstream processing options, including the potential to produce battery-grade graphite for sale to the lithium battery industry.

Kibaran managing director Andrew Spinks said the raising would fast-track Epanko into production.

“This means we will be in a position to increase production and add further value to our production much sooner than would otherwise be the case,” he said.

Epanko has capital costs of $US77.5 million for the 40,000tpa operation, which returns a net present value of $197.4 million, an internal rate of return of 41.2% and a payback period of 2.7 years.

Debt funding talks are well-advanced with German KfW-Bank and Nedbank and the project can be in production within nine months of securing financing.

The company has offtake agreements in place for 100% of planned production.

Kibaran shares last traded at A27c.