JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – West Africa-focused gold developer Cora Gold has started trading on the Aim.
As part of the admission process, the company has raised £3.45-million through the placing and subscription of 20.93-million new ordinary shares at a placing price of 16.5p each, implying a market capitalisation of £9.07-million on admission.
Most of the net proceeds of the fundraising will be used for a planned exploration programme that will principally focus on the company’s flagship Mali-based Sanankoro gold discovery, as well as exploration activities at some of its other properties.
“Today is a seminal day for Cora Gold marking our admission to the LSE as a West African gold developer and explorer. Our objective is to create value by turning the Sanankoro gold discovery into a mine and the drill-ready gold targets at our other project areas into discoveries,” CEO Jon Forster said in a statement issued on Monday.
He reiterated that the company’s focus would be on its Sanankoro project and, with substantial historical data from both Gold Fields and Randgold, the company believes it has potential to increase the scale of the discovery to more than one-million ounces of in-situ gold.
“We have the added benefit of exploring in the shadow of gold mines at two of the project areas, where any new discoveries would be within possible trucking distance, and as such providing Cora with possible routes for early processing of ore puts us in a strong position as we commence our work programme with a view to creating maximum value for our shareholders,” he said.
Cora notes that there is potential to process its ore at Hummingbird Resources’ Yanfolila gold mine or AngloGold Ashanti and Iamgold’s Sadiola gold mine.