History
NioCorp spent a decade funding its Elk Creek project in Nebraska through small, dilutive raisings, then listed on Nasdaq in 2023 and raised ever larger sums into 2026.
2016-2019: Living on small raisings
NioCorp's aim was to develop the Elk Creek Project in Nebraska, and from the start it had no revenue to pay for it. In December 2016 it warned that it had only two to three months of cash and needed to raise $4-6 million within the year. The record shows how it coped. It repeatedly converted principal on a convertible note from Lind Partners into shares, often at falling prices, and it ran private placements: about C$5.15 million at C$0.70 a unit in early 2017, which took shares outstanding to 195.4 million. In May 2017 it moved to an underwritten "bought deal", which was later terminated, and it then raised money through an outside placement agent, Mackie Research Capital, closing in August.
The pressure showed. By late 2017 Lind conversions were happening at as little as C$0.36 to C$0.44 a share. The original Lind facility was expanded several times, then fully drawn, and in mid-2018 a new one replaced it: a $1.0 million advance for a $1.2 million face convertible security. A placement in autumn 2018 raised C$3.14 million, with its first tranche priced at C$0.63. Shares on issue rose from about 186 million at the end of 2016 to about 235 million by the end of 2019. In May 2019 the company filed a new feasibility study (a study of whether a mine would pay) showing a $2.57 billion pre-tax project value, higher than its 2017 study, with stronger returns and a longer mine life.
2020-2022: Recovery, then a path to Nasdaq
The record for 2020 is thin, but one item points to tight cash: in December engineering contractor Nordmin agreed to turn past-due fees into a $1.87 million convertible note. In February 2021 NioCorp signed its largest Lind facility yet, a $10 million advance for an $11.7 million face convertible security. A May 2021 placement raised C$6.2 million at C$1.43 a unit, about three times its typical 2018-2019 price. Shares reached about 264 million by the end of 2021. In June 2022 a further placement raised C$4.78 million at C$0.96, and CEO Mark Smith's personal $3.5 million credit facility, first made in January 2017, was extended to June 2023.
In September 2022 NioCorp agreed to merge with GX Acquisition Corp. II, a Nasdaq-listed blank-cheque company (a shell that raises money to buy a business). The deal could bring up to $285 million, though the actual amount depended on how many GX holders took their money back. A $65 million equity facility with Yorkville was lined up alongside it. In October 2022 an accounting error in how past loan costs were recorded forced a restatement of fiscal 2021 and 2022 results.
2023-2024: Going public in the US
In January 2023 NioCorp signed up to $16 million of Yorkville convertible debentures. Shareholders approved the merger with over 95% support on 10 March. A 1-for-10 share consolidation was announced, which explains the fall in share count to about 28 million at the end of 2022 as presented. The merger closed on 17 March 2023, and NioCorp began trading on Nasdaq under NB alongside its Toronto listing. The Yorkville debt and equity financings were worth up to $71.9 million over three years.
The integration was bumpy. In May 2023 a second restatement followed, this time over warrants and common shares, and the company filed its quarterly report late, drawing a Nasdaq notice. In December 2023 a small placement raised about US$1.29 million, with officers and directors buying over a third of the units. In April 2024 Yorkville and Lind Global Fund II jointly lent $8 million through unsecured notes, with repayments starting in June 2024. Shares on issue were about 34 million at the end of 2023 and 44 million at the end of 2024.
2025-2026: Bigger raisings and a wider plan
The pace and size of fundraising then rose sharply. A public offering in April 2025 raised about $20.8 million, and in September a $60.0 million offering became the largest to that point. Shares on issue climbed from about 44 million at the end of 2024 to about 121 million at the end of 2025. In November 2025 the board adopted a six-month shareholder rights plan (a "poison pill" against unsolicited takeovers), saying it knew of no actual threat. In December it bought the manufacturing assets and intellectual property of FEA Materials, an aluminum-scandium alloy maker, for $8.4 million, aiming at a U.S. scandium supply chain.
On 25 February 2026 NioCorp closed a $100.0 million public offering, its largest yet, to keep funding Elk Creek toward commercial operation. At that date it had about 145.8 million shares on issue, and the mine had not yet entered production.
Written from the 37 story beats below (2016 to 25 Feb 2026), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.