This quarter was a significant one for moving the company forward.
Following a restructuring at the beginning of 2021 to place most of our debts onto an over one-year basis, and a small equity fundraising of CAD 0.2 million, we completed a successful CAD 3 million equity fundraising in February 2021. This was increased from an initial CAD 2 million and even then was oversubscribed in an unusual period in which our share price trebled in six weeks along with much demand for stock in other lithium companies. The board did not have the choice of raising more than CAD 3 million in the fundraising as the TSXV has to approve such increases and it made clear that it would not approve further increases.
The restructuring, the fundraisings, and the subsequent conversion of CAD 0.14 million of convertible debentures allowed the Company to strengthen its balance sheet as well as fund the maiden drilling at our 100% owned and royalty-free Raleigh Lake project in Ontario which achieved pleasing initial results. An announcement on Raleigh Lake was made on 19 April 2021, and further announcements will be made at the appropriate time once we have relevant information.
The Mariana project in Argentina, in which the Company now owns 10.194%, is expected to reach the feasibility study stage by the end of May 2021. As earlier mentioned this will unfortunately not be to NI 43-101 standards, but only to standards acceptable to our partner Ganfeng, and this means that there will be regulatory restrictions on what we are allowed to announce. The Company will at that time have 120 days in which to exercise its 10% back in right. The cost of doing so is governed by a formula linked to historic expenditures on the project and would currently be about CAD 9 million unless a higher level of expenditure is set and incurred by Ganfeng in the next few months in a manner that disrupts this process. We are looking at our strategic options around this property.
In parallel with the main activity at our 100% owned Raleigh Lake project, there is some progress with the 45% owned Avalonia project in Ireland with additional drilling underway financed by Ganfeng as part of its earn-in. There is nothing to report on the 49% owned Mavis Lake in Ontario, our joint venture with Essential Metals. We are also looking at other possible future development sites.
We will be raising further amounts of funding in the next year, but at present, this looks like being in a significantly more benign funding climate than that which prevailed in 2018-2020. Additionally, the Company is in a much stronger position than a year ago.
I would like to thank all my colleagues and our advisors for their contribution, and also all the directors for their financial support for our loan stock and equity issues. I would also like to welcome all our new shareholders who came on board in the past few months, including from the United States and from Europe.
John Wisbey
Chairman