A robotic mineral drill rig manufacturer looking to carve a slice out of the US$2.2 billion global surface drilling market has bitten the bullet on a London Alternative Investment Market float and circa-£4.9 million equity raise.
Northern Ireland-based Tribe Technology PLC, which says it has at least £10.5 million of drill rig orders in hand, is placing 45 million shares at 10p and making a retail offer of 4 million 10p shares to provide a new public vehicle with working capital and R&D funding.
Allenby Capital is Tribe’s nominated adviser (Nomad) and float broker.
Tribe CEO Charlie King told InvestMETS.com last month the company needed capital to advance its production and expansion plans, and favoured London as a major financial centre and because of Tribe’s Belfast corporate and manufacturing base.
The company was founded in Western Australia in late 2019 and maintains a secondary office in Perth.
King believes the company’s proprietary Tribe Technology Drilling System (TTDS) can disrupt the reverse circulation (RC) drill rig market.
The primary applications of RC drill rigs are early-stage mineral exploration, resource definition, and various aspects of mine development and production. An estimated 1400 RC drill rigs are used around the world in exploration and grade control.
Manufacturing of its first-generation Tribe RC drill rigs for Anglo American and McKay Drilling is underway in Belfast.
Beyond drill rigs, Tribe believes it has a “potentially robust sales pipeline” for its sample system products which can be sold on a stand-alone basis.
“Our technology provides a solution to the RC drill rig market at a time when efficiency and safety are as important as the need to bring much larger amounts of commodities into a rapidly changing world,” King said.
“We are working towards completing our first autonomously operated drill rig later this year.
“We believe now is the right time to bring our story to the public market and that London, with its international investor base and a strong knowledge of the mining industry, is the right place to start this journey, especially given our production facilities in Northern Ireland.
“Admission to AIM will also give us additional visibility and transparency, as well as the resources we need to fund our growth and technology and business development.”
The Tribe retail offer is expected to close on August 25.
