JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Iberia-focused miner and explorer W Resources has raised £750 000 through the placing of 214-million ordinary shares at 0.35p apiece.
The company will use the proceeds to advance the development of its copper and gold assets, and advance the acquisition of the La Parrilla crusher, jig and mill.
Over the past 18 months, W has been successful in advancing its copper and gold exploration activities in the Iberian Peninsula, where it owns 100% of the CAA Portalegre gold prospect, including the São Martinho gold deposit, and 100% of the Monforte-Tinoca copper exploration licence, including the Tinoca and Azeiteiros copper mines.
A strategic review has highlighted significant opportunity for W to accelerate the development of its copper and gold projects by focusing dedicated funding in this area, which will increase the value of the assets.
Therefore, the board has decided to evaluate alternatives to separate these projects from W and is considering strategies including listing them in a separate entity on the LSE.
The São Martinho mine, in Portugal, has a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource of three-million tonnes at 1.04 g/t gold, equating to 111 987 oz in contained gold.
W has completed a successful 1 500 m diamond core drilling programme and a resource update at the gold resource is now under way and expected to be completed in the second quarter.
The Monforte-Tinoca copper exploration licence, which contains the former Tinoca and Azeiteiros copper mines, was granted to W in July 2016 and development work is progressing well on these two projects.
"As well as providing our flagship La Parrilla and Régua tungsten projects with greater strategic and logistical management focus, time and resources, there is merit in separately listing our copper and gold assets and growing this attractive portfolio to ensure our shareholders benefit from its success."
"Construction of the plant remains on track at La Parrilla and we are now in a position to order the crusher, jig and mill, which keeps us on track to resume tungsten production in the second half of the year,” W Resources chairperson Michael Masterman commented.