Karelian raises £0.19m for work in Finland, Northern Ireland

(Sharecast News) - Karelian Diamond Resources announced on Friday that it has raised £0.185m through a placing and subscription at 0.75p per share, a 30% discount to the company's closing mid-market price on 19 June.

The AIM-traded explorer said the proceeds would support the next phase of development at its Lahtojoki diamond project in Finland, alongside wider exploration efforts in both Finland and Northern Ireland.

Karelian, which recently received a mining concession certificate from the Finnish authorities for Lahtojoki, said the funds would help initiate further work on that deposit and expand exploration at Kuhmo, where it had already discovered a green diamond in till.

In Northern Ireland, the proceeds would also assist in evaluating copper mineralisation at the historic Cappagh Copper Mine, within the newly granted KDR4 licence area, as part of broader efforts to identify an economic nickel-copper-platinum group element deposit.

"This fundraising enables the company to continue its work as we begin in particular to move to the next phase of our work at Lahtojoki and also focus on advancing the significant potential for nickel-copper-platinum group elements in Northern Ireland," said managing director Maureen Jones.

The fundraising comprised a placing of 18 million shares and a subscription for a further 6.67 million shares, together representing around 12.55% of the enlarged issued share capital.

Karelian said the new shares were expected to start trading on AIM on or around 26 June.

At 1159 BST, shares in Karelian Diamond Resources were down 18.84% at 0.87p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.