BCI Minerals, which is developing the Mardie salt and potash project in the Western Australia, is raising $315 million to fuel it through to first salt production.
The raise is comprised of an accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer, which is fully underwritten by Canaccord Genuity. Major shareholders Wroxby and AustralianSuper (the latter of which has sub-underwritten the raise up to $112.5 million) have both committed to taking up their full entitlements.
BCI will issue 1.02 billion new shares at an issue price of $0.25 per share, with each eligible shareholder to be offered one new share for every 1.19 BCI shares already held. This will account for $255 million of the raise.
A further $60 million will be sought from sophisticated and professional investors in two tranches, with the second tranche subject to shareholder approval.
The raise brings the total capital cost of Mardie to $1.287 billion and $156 million in contingency, lower than the previous estimate of $1.4 billion and $208 million respectively.
“This equity raising is intended to complete the total funding package required to enable the Mardie project to deliver first salt in the second half of 2026,” BCI managing director David Boshoff said.
“We do not anticipate any further equity raises being required to fund the development of the project and we are grateful for the strong support shown by our largest shareholders, including Wroxby and AustralianSuper.”
Once the project is producing salt, BCI will then refine sulphate of potash (SOP) from waste produced in the salt crystallisation process.
“BCI’s current intention is to fund construction of the SOP circuit and ramp up through further debt and/or cash flow from salt production.”
When operational, Mardie will be the first major salt project developed in Australia in two decades and the only Australian operation to produce commercially saleable salt.
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