Disclaimer : I am a long term shareholder in Elcora.
Elcora Appoints CTO of Anode Development, Provides Financing Update
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA / ACCESSWIRE / February 23, 2017 / ELCORA ADVANCED MATERIALS CORP. (TSX-V:ERA / Frankfurt: ELM / OTCQB: ECORF) (the "Company" or "Elcora") is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Shane Beattie as the CTO of anode development with responsibilities in the technology, testing, manufacturing, and technical support of the Company's anode powder.
Dr. Shane Beattie
Dr. Beattie has more than 15 years of experience in energy storage and anode development. He earned his Ph.D. working with Jeff Dahn at Dalhousie University. His Post Doctoral fellowship was with Dr. Jean-Marie Tarascon at the LRCS, UPJV, Amiens, France. More recently, he was the Technical Director at Warwick University's Battery Pilot Scale-up line.
Dr. Beattie will be responsible for expanding the Company's existing capabilities to include testing of pouch cells, evaluating different graphite sources, supervision of the anode facility construction and related personnel, and interfacing with clients. He brings valuable experience working with several automotive companies using Li-ion technology and with cell manufacturers.
"The appointment of Dr. Beattie facilitates the development of the anode powder aspect of Elcora's vertically integrated structure and brings battery anode manufacturing and testing knowledge into the Company," said Troy Grant, Elcora's President and CEO. In addition, "His experiences and knowledge of the industry will be key to help commercialize and sell the Elcora anode products."
Elcora is pleased to report that they received $500,000 in non-repayable grants and $1,300,000 in Government Loans to assist with continued Lithium-Ion battery testing and development.
In addition to the $1,800,000 amount, the Company announces that it has closed the second and final tranche of the non-brokered private placement financing (the "Private Placement") announced on January 31, 2017. The Private Placement closed at a total of $2,645,823 or 9,799,343 Units.
The first tranche involved the issuance of 9,326,093 units ("Units") of the Company at a price of $0.27 per Unit for gross proceeds of $2,518,045. The final tranche involved the issuance of 473,250 Units of the Company at a price of $0.27 per Unit for gross proceeds of $127,778.
Each Unit will be comprised of one common share and one common share purchase warrant. Each full warrant gives the holder the right to purchase one additional common share of Elcora at an exercise price of $0.34 for two years following the closing of the Private Placement. The term of the warrants may be accelerated in the event that the issuer's shares trade at or above a price of $0.60 cents per share for a period of 20 consecutive days. In such case of accelerated warrants, the issuer may give notice, in writing or by way of news release, to the subscribers that the warrants will expire 45 days from the date of providing such notice.
In connection with the closing of both tranches of the Private Placement, the Company paid cash finders' fees equal to 6% of the proceeds and issued finders' shares equal to 6% of the number of Units sold. All securities issued pursuant to the Private Placement will be subject to a statutory four-month hold period.
About Elcora Advanced Materials
Elcora was founded in 2011 and has been structured to become a vertically integrated graphite and graphene company that mines, refines, and processes graphite, and produces graphene. The Company's products are then used to manufacture battery grade anode graphite and to develop future graphene based and/or enriched high tech products, such as graphene enhanced silicon anodes for lithium ion batteries. As part of this vertical integration strategy, Elcora has secured high-grade graphite and graphene precursor graphite from its interest in the operation of the Ragedara mine in Sri Lanka, which is already in production. Elcora has developed a unique low cost effective ecological processes to make high quality battery grade and battery form graphite and graphene at commercial scale. This combination means that Elcora has vertically integrated the tools and resources required to produce graphite, micro-graphite, and graphene.