Article by Anthony Macdonald, Sarah Thompson and Kanika Sood, courtesy of the Australian Financial Review.
Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting is understood to have written a cheque for IPO hopeful Brazilian Rare Earths’ $21 million private round.
Investor sources said Hancock and another family office took up a big slice of the pre-IPO round in a raise wrapped up by Canaccord Genuity last week.
The company has 461 square kilometres of tenements in Brazil with a maiden JORC resource of 169 Mt at 1,526 parts per million total rare earth oxides. This, it reckons, translates into multi billion-tonne potential and is comparable to the world’s biggest non-Chinese rare earth clay projects such as Serra Verde.
Term sheets sent to potential investors listed the total raising amount as up to $10 million. It was structured as a convertible note that would convert at a 20 per cent discount to the IPO price for a listing next year, and at a 30 per cent discount if the ASX listing rolled into 2024.
However, investor sources said Brazilian Rare Earths upsized the deal and finally closed the book at $21 million, including Rinehart’s investment.
The deck said it intended to list early in 2023 via a $20 million to $30 million IPO.
Brazilian Rare Earths is led by West Australian-Brazilian managing director Bernardo da Veiga, while the board includes ex Piedmont Lithium director Todd Hannigan.
It’s Canaccord’s second deal in rare earths this week, where it’s been cornering listed as well as unlisted raises. Last week, it helped another rare earths play, VHM Limited, which is 10 per cent-owned by MinRes boss Chris Ellison, secure a $256 million ASX listing after a $20 million IPO.
