The potential of Arrow Minerals’ (ASX: AMD) Niagara bauxite and Simandou North iron projects in Guinea has resulted in strong support for a $7 million capital raising.

The company has received firm commitments from institutional and sophisticated investors for the placement of just over 185 million shares at an issue price of $0.038 to be conducted over two tranches with free unlisted options attached.

Arrow will apply the new funds to the finalisation of a maiden JORC resource estimate, the completion of a scoping study at Niagara and the permitting processes for Niagara and Simandou.

Growing awareness

Managing director David Flanagan said the strong support for the capital raising is an indication of the market’s growing awareness of the potential of the company’s projects.

“The quality and scale of the mineralisation demonstrated by recent drilling have illustrated the world-class nature of the Niagara bauxite project,” Mr Flanagan said.

“We believe that these work streams will demonstrate the significant value of both of our projects in Guinea, which we anticipate will rapidly drive demonstrable shareholder value.”

Arrow recently obtained outstanding metallurgical test work results at Simandou North, which highlighted the project’s high-grade, low-alumina product.

The promising results followed Arrow’s memorandum of understanding with China’s Baosteel for mine-gate sales.

Premium pricing

With shallow high-grade mineralisation outlined over 14 square kilometres, Niagara looks ideally placed to capitalise on the premium pricing being achieved for Guinea bauxite.

Arrow is fast-tracking the Niagara mineral resource estimate, targeting completion by the end of March 2025 and a scoping study is expected to be finished by the end of June 2025.

Both Niagara and Simandou North are located within trucking distance of the Trans-Guinean Railway (TGR) currently under construction by Winning Consortium Simandou.

The proximity of the Niagara project to the TGR provides significant benefits to its development as a result of multi-user access to rail and port infrastructure.