PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior gold miner Troy Resources on Friday announced that it had raised some a$10-million through a share placement to institutional and sophisticated investors to supplement working capital requirements while it ramped up production at the Karouni project, in Guyana.

Troy told shareholders that it had placed some 50-million new shares, at a price of 20c each, in two tranches.

The first tranche consisted of 42.8-million shares, and was issued under the company’s 15% placement capacity.

The second trance of 7.2-million shares would be subject to shareholder approval at the company’s annual general meeting, expected to be held in January.

Troy CEO Martin Purvis said on Friday that the successful completion of the placement set the platform for the ramp-up of operations at Karouni, and the introduction of a robust revenue stream into the company in early 2016.

“The past six months have presented some significant challenges for Troy and within this environment we have struggled to meet some of the key targets we set ourselves at the beginning of the year,” Purvis said.

“Commensurate with this situation, we are conscious of the fact that we have had to turn to our shareholders, in difficult markets, in order to help us overcome those obstacles and their impact on our balance sheet.”

Purvis said that looking ahead, there were some catalysts that had the potential to underpin further value creation in the group, including the remodeling of the Karouni life-of-mine plan to take into account the positive grade control numbers being recorded at both the Hicks and Smarts pits.

The Karouni mine produced its first gold bar in November this year, weighing just over 4.7 kg.

The $70-million opencut operation, which would have a mine life of three years, would produce, on average, 101 000 oz/y of gold, barring the first year in which 104 400 oz was expected.