Isle of Man-registered potash junior Emmerson plc, which is developing the Khemisset Potash Project in Morocco, announced on April 8 that it has raised a total of $2.175 million from two strategic investors.
Global Sustainable Minerals Pte Ltd. (GSM), the company’s largest shareholder, has subscribed to $2 million worth of stock, or approximately 90.7 million shares at 1.75 per pence, bringing its interest up to 20.3% and gaining a seat on the Board of Directors. Gold Quay Capital Pte Ltd. (GQC) has paid $175,000 for over 7.9 million shares and has a 2.64% stake. The placing price represents a 16.4% discount from the company’s five-day average of 2.09 pence.
Soon after the GSM and GQC subscription, the company offered shares to existing shareholders at the same price – 1.75 per pence – and pulled in another $301,000, issuing 13.7 million additional shares. The funds will be used to advance its new Khemisset Multimineral Process (KMP) as well as for general working capital purposes (GM Feb. 2, p. 28).
Emmerson and its consultants have been preparing a revised Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to address concerns previously raised by the Commission Régionale Unifiée d’Investissement (CRUI) (GM July 14, 2023) and includes the improvements arising from the KMP. The document will be submitted in the coming days.
The company said it believes the improvements incorporated by the KMP into the design, notably the reduction of water consumption and the elimination of brine disposal, are considerable and address the major concerns related to water identified by CRUI.
“While we maintain the previous EIA submission was adequate, we believe this, in addition to the previous optimizations, makes the revised EIA even more environmentally robust, and addresses all material concerns related to water that have been raised in the past,” said Emmerson CEO Graham Clarke.
Emmerson is targeting production of 800,000 mt/y of potash and 1 million mt/y of salt at Khemisset.