PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner and lithium developer Firefinch has completed a A$100-million institutional share placement, allowing the company to fast-track production growth at its Morila gold mine, in Mali.

The company on Monday said that it would place 149.3-million shares, at a price of 67 each, to new and existing investors. The placement price represented an 11.3% discount to Firefinch’s last closing price on December 8, and an 8% discount to the company’s ten-day volume weighted average share price.

“The overwhelming demand from both offshore and domestic institutions for this equity raising is a strong endorsement of our corporate strategy and testament to the underlying quality of Firefinche’s Morila and Goulamina projects,” said MD Michael Anderson.

“This is a fantastic outcome for Firefinch which speaks to the outstanding growth potential inherent in our assets, the exceptional work our team has done ramping up gold production to date and in completing an updated definitive feasibility study for Goulamina. We now have a huge opportunity in front of us.”

The funds raised will go towards rapidly increasing gold production at Morila to more than 100 000 oz in 2022, and ultimately to over 200 000 oz of gold in 2024.

The company would also fast track the development of Goulamina, which was recently confirmed as being among the world’s largest lithium development projects.

“2021 has been a transformational year for the company and this funding provides a tremendous foundation for further growth as we enter 2022. We are now well funded to deliver on our strategic vision of becoming a West African gold producer of scale, as well as developing the next major lithium project to enter production, ahead of our Goulamina demerger in the new year. We will continue to work tirelessly to create value for our shareholders on both fronts,” said Anderson.

The demerger of the Goulamina lithium project, in Mali, into a separately listed vehicle known as Leo Lithium, is expected to be implemented by February next year, with the spin-out to be listed on the ASX by the end of the March quarter.