Kali Metals taps new investors in $7m capital raise to move on from drama with ASIC investigation into MinRes

Kali Metals, the junior explorer embroiled in the corporate cop’s investigation into Mineral Resources, is raising about $7 million to make a fresh start. Argonaut is taking bids at 18¢ a share — the same price Kali with its $28 million market capitalisation last traded at. The cash raised will mainly be poured into a hunt for gold near Marble Bar and residual funds allocated to lithium exploration near MinRes’ Mt Marion and Bald Hill mines in the Goldfields. It is understood the placement was targeted at new investors, meaning major shareholders like MinRes will likely be diluted. In June last year, a spokesman for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission told The West Australian that Kali’s initial public offering would form part of its probe into MinRes. It is understood reporting by The West stimulated interest in Kali’s ASX debut in January 2024 as a focus of the corporate regulator’s MinRes investigation that began later in the year. Kali had an IPO price of 25¢ and within a week of its listing debut reached a peak of 89¢ as MinRes piled in to acquire a 14 per cent stake. MinRes boss Chris Ellison and his mother-in-law were both top-five Kali shareholders when the company listed, with 10.5 million shares combined. A number of major shareholders, including Mr Ellison’s mother-in-law, sold big portions of their holdings in Kali soon after it started life on the ASX. Kali was spun-out of Kalamazoo Resources and Karora Resources, and its heavily-oversubscribed $15m IPO in November 2023 eclipsed expectations. “We opened and closed (the offer) in less than 20 minutes,” Kali’s then-managing director Graeme Sloan told The West in December 2023. “It was hugely successful, we were structured to raise between $12m and up to $15m . . . we probably could’ve ended up raising at least two or three times that.” Paul Adams has been Kali’s chief since July 2024 and Westgold is currently its biggest shareholder after acquiring Karora in August 2024.