* Impala seeks cash from investors to fund projects
* Shares punished by the market, down as much as 15 pct
* Company sees savings of 1.3 bln rand in 2016 (Adds cash position)
By Zandi Shabalala
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Impala Platinum plans to raise 4 billion rand ($299 million) in a share sale tofund the development of two shafts at its strike-ridden SouthAfrican operations, the company said on Thursday, sending itsshares tumbling to 12-year lows.
Impala, along with rivals Lonmin and AngloAmerican Platinum, is still recovering from 2014'srecord five-month strike that cost the industry billions in lostoutput, damaged the viability of some mines and led to job cuts.
Global growth concerns, particularly in top consumer China,and oversupply have sapped demand for platinum, pushing the spotprice to near 6-1/2 year lows just above $1,000 an ounce.
Impala, the world's second-largest producer of the preciousmetal, said it would use the money, to be raised via anaccelerated book-building, to complete two shafts in Rustenburg,the centre of last year's strike.
"We think this is just the beginning and that others, notleast of which Lonmin, are also short of capital given the weakPGM (platinum group metals) market," Investec Securities said.
Lonmin's CEO has said mines were not responding to cashinjections and investors were unlikely to look favourably oncapital requests from mining firms.
But Implats said investors holding a 49 percent stake in thecompany, including the Coronation Fund Managers and thePublic Investment Corporation, support its cash raising plan.
While shifting its focus to cash-saving because ofdeteriorating platinum prices and the effects of the strike,Implats will spend 3.9 billion rand over the next three years onshaft 16 and 20, which contain cheaper to mine higher grade ore.
"It is critical at this stage to safeguard the completion ofkey capital projects, the suspension or abandonment of whichwould have a materially adverse impact on the long term value ofthe Group," Implats said.
At the same time Impala planned to shave 1.3 billion randfrom 2016 capital expenditure to 4.2 billion rand by closingsome unprofitable shafts and delaying capital projects.
Implats had 2.5 billion rand in cash by June, down 40percent from the previous year and did not pay a dividend.
Its shares fell as much as 15 percent before recovering totrade 6.75 percent lower at 43.40 rand by 1336 GMT.
Implats posted a 58 percent drop in full-year headlineearnings per share to 36 cents. Headline EPS is a widely watchedmeasure in South Africa that strips out some one-off items.
Gross refined platinum production rose 8.3 percent to 1.276million ounces in the year to June.
($1 = 13.3970 rand) (Additional reporting by Peroshni Govender; Editing by JamesMacharia)
