TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Reno, Nevada-based Allied Nevada Gold will raise about C$100-million in a bought-deal offering of shares, the firm said on Friday.

The company will sell 11,15-million shares to a syndicate of underwriters coled by GMP Securities and Genuity Capital Markets.

The shares have been priced at C$9,00 apiece, a discount to the stock's closing price on Thursday of C$9,38 a share.

Allied Nevada said it plans to use the proceeds of the offering, which is scheduled to close at the end of this month, for exploration and general corporate purposes.

The company operates the Hycroft gold mine, near Winnemucca, Nevada, and also has several prospective exploration claims in the state.

Allied Nevada will likely use the proceeds of the offering towards leach pad, crusher, and fleet expansion at Hycroft, Adam Graf, an analyst at New York-based Dahlman Rose & Co, wrote in a note on Friday.

"In addition, we think the company will continue to aggressively drill the underlying sulphide orebody at Hycroft, and prepare all the engineering and environmental studies required, culminating in a full feasibility study by 2011."

The company's valuation and leverage "remains compelling", he said.

The Hycroft mine is expected to produce between 80 000 oz and 87 000 oz of gold in 2009 at a cost of sales a gold ounce of $460/oz to $480/oz.

The company is exploring at Hycroft to identify additional oxide ore reserves that can extend the mine life, as well as continuing to assess the economic potential of the sulphide mineralisation that has been identified.

Allied Nevada shares slid 1,8% on Friday, to C$9,21 apiece by 14:00 in Toronto.

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