PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Silver miner Alcyone Resources has welcomed a new cornerstone investor after a Malaysian firm subscribed for A$4.87-million of a May rights issue.
In May, Alcyone conducted a pro-rata nonrenounceable rights issue, offering two fully paid shares for every one share held, at an issue price of A$0.005 a share, to raise a maximum of A$16.25-million.
The miner said on Monday that it had raised some A$12.8-million after placing A$4.87-million of the rights issue shortfall with the Malaysian investor, Notion VTec Berhad.
Notion now holds a 19.9% shareholding in Alcyone.
Nonexecutive chairperson Paul D’Sylva said that given the current conditions in commodity and equity markets for junior mining companies, the success of the rights issue highlighted the strong value proposition of the company as a low-cost, high-grade silver producer.
“Our primary focus is to be a profitable pure-play silver producer with a recapitalised structure, and an expanded resource base, alongside a new board and management team,” said D’Sylva.
“We are now in a very strong position to reach nameplate production capacity of 1.2-million ounces a year at the Texas silver mine, in Queensland, and have recently revised our plant upgrade to begin in mid-October.”
D’Sylva said that Alcyone was also reviewing the requirements to grow the mine life at Texas, and added that the company believed there was significant potential to expand the Mount Gunyan resource. The company was currently establishing the terms of the drilling activity, cost and time to increase Alcyone’s contained silver inventory.