PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold hopeful Focus Minerals has announced a A$45.69-million capital raise, as well as plans to resume gold mining at the Coolgardie operations, in Western Australia.

The ASX-listed company on Friday announced plans for a one-for-one non-renounceable entitlement offer, at an issue price of 25c a share, to raise up to A$45.69-million.

The offer price represented a 12.3% discount to Focus’ last closing price, and a 15.4% discount to the company’s five-day volume weighted average share price.

The entitlement offer will open on December 10 and will close on December 23.

Focus told shareholders that the proceeds of the entitlement offer, along with available funds, would be used to resume gold mining operations at the Coolgardie project, and to provide working capital to fund continued exploration work and assessment of the company’s other assets.

The Focus board has approved a plan to restart operations at Coolgardie, with plans to restart operations during 2022.

A 2020 prefeasibility study (PFS) into the restart estimated that the project could produce 63 000 oz/y over a six-year mine life, based on a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant proven and probable reserve of 6.64-million tonnes, at 1.97 g/t gold.

The study estimated that the mill refurbishment would require a capital investment of A$24-million, while a further A$4-million would be spent on the tailings storage facility to increase capacity to 2.5-million tonnes.

Focus said on Friday that the company was now in the process of selecting contractors to evaluate and undertake the necessary assessment of the critical engineering works required to resume mining operations, including a detailed evaluation of the recommissioning cost estimate for the Three Mile Hill processing plant.

An update to the PFS is proposed.

Subject to the relevant assessments, and obtaining all the necessary government approvals and permits, as well as raising sufficient funds, Focus is hoping to start pre-stripping and ore stockpiling at the Greenfields pit, the recommissioning of the Three Mile Hill process plant, and other construction and development activities at Coolgardie.

“This is a significant moment for Focus,” said CEO Zhaoya Wang.

“A lot of work remains ahead of us, but we are highly confident in the strong mineral endowment our team has identified at Coolgardie, which will underpin a successful return to gold mining operations.”