Ardea Resources Limited – Successful A$21.5m Capital Raising

Ardea Resources Limited (Ardea or the Company) announces that it has received firm commitments for a placement of shares with professional and informed investor clients from Petra Capital Pty Limited (Petra) to raise about AU$21.5 million before costs (Investment).

Funds raised from the placement will be used primarily for nickel sulphide drilling, regional exploration, feasibility study programs and working capital. Petra acted as sole lead manager and sole bookrunner for the placement.

Comments from the General Manager Andrew Penketman

“We are delighted with the support the Placement has received from new and existing institutional and sophisticated investors. Petra is to be congratulated for presenting such a quality group. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I welcome our new highly qualified Australian and overseas investors to the register. Most importantly, a special thank you to our current Ardea shareholders for their loyal support and unwavering faith in the company and its nickel-cobalt projects leading to this company-defining investment. The Ardea team has worked tirelessly to position the company so that the sole focus is nickel-cobalt. As the world transitions to a low-carbon future and lithium-ion battery manufacturers must ensure a sustainable and ethical supply of minerals, Ardea’s Kalgoorlie Nickel Project (KNP) is perfectly positioned to play a key role. Proceeds from the placement will allow Ardea to rapidly advance its nickel sulphide assets through an extensive diamond drilling campaign, while existing funds will continue to be deployed to advance our KNP Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) Goongarrie Hub. With a strong cash position, we look forward to putting shareholder funds to work building the KNP asset base for production.

Location overview

Ardea raised approx. AU$21.5 million in gross proceeds, i.e. the remaining placement capacity of the Company, via a Placement at an issue price of AU$0.70 per share (placement price). The investment price of AU$0.70 per share represents a discount of 11.9% to the last traded price and a discount of 6.5% to the 10 trading day VWAP of the Company’s shares for February 17, 2022. Ardea will issue a total of 30,707,553 new shares (16,824,532 under ASX listing rule 7.1 and 13,883,021 under ASX listing rule 7.1A). Placement should settle on or around February 28, 2022 with shares to be issued on March 1, 2022.

In addition, Ardea will issue 200,000 shares to board members for their purchases consisting of Ian Buchhorn 150,000 shares, Andrew Penketman 28,572 shares and Mathew Longworth 21,428 shares. The issue of shares to the members of the Board will be made under the same conditions as the shares of the Placement and will raise an additional amount AU$140,000 subject to shareholder approval at a general meeting of the Company, the details of which will be provided in the coming days.

Strategic Partners Update

Ardea continues to advance discussions with prospects Strategic partners with the aim of selecting a preferred partner with the technical and financial capacity to work with the Company on the Kalgoorlie Nickel Project – Goongarrie Hub in completing the DFS and making a final investment decision for funding and development. In light of the global push for sustainable and ethical mineral sourcing, Ardea continues to generate tremendous interest in its suite of nickel-cobalt assets. Discussions with prospects Strategic partners are considered to be at an early stage and there is no guarantee that a strategic partnership will be concluded

Technical update

Ardea continues to evaluate assay results from its 2021 H2 metallurgical core drilling at the Highway, Goongarrie South and Goongarrie Hill prospects, as well as historical drill paste reassays for QAQC confirmation at Kalpini Nickel Project. Interpretation of the complete drill assay datasets is preliminary, ongoing and incomplete. The Company has undertaken an initial high-level review of the data and, in the absence of a full interpretation of the results, does not consider the information reviewed to be material at this stage. The Company intends to undertake a full analysis and interpretation of the results over the coming weeks and will make announcements as the appropriate reporting milestones are reached. The Company is also in the process of undertaking bench metallurgical testing on the Highway drill core. This research and development work undertaken to date is preliminary. The Company confirms that it is in compliance with Listing Rule 3.1. Authorized to file by the Board of Ardea Resources Limited

Contact:

Andrew Penketman

Tel: 8 6244 5136