Junior miner Nordic Gold has changed the name of its Laiva gold mine to the Otso gold mine, its Finnish operating subsidiary to Otso Gold and is now proposing the same name for the company.

The proposed name change, which is subject to TSX-V approval, is a signal to mark the future direction of the business, Nordic said on Monday, announcing progress in its aim of restarting the idled Laiva mine.

The company is raising capital, on a private placement basis, to complete the drill programme, restart feasibility and preparatory work for the return to production. It requires $7.5-million for initial capital and $10-million for startup capital.

Nordic reported that it had received a strong response to its planned capital raise of up to $7.5-million aimed at qualified accredited investors and other institutional investors.

“The advanced nature of the project, short timeline to production, limited startup capital and the gold market conditions have allowed the company’s value proposition to stand out.”

PFL Raahe Holdings has agreed to participate in the capital raise and thereby maintain its equity position in Nordic by converting a ‘contingent consideration’ amount payable to Pandion by Nordic into equity to a maximum of $1.56-million.

The company said it had engaged with debt providers, gold refineries, hybrid security providers and equity providers on the best structure to minimise dilution, while ensuring it was sufficiently capitalised to expand pit operations and manage working capital.

Pandion also provided Nordic with a first $300 000 advance and will be providing the second $300 000 advance in the next few days – all towards Pandion's agreement to provide a total of $900 000 in additional working capital, Nordic said.

On the technical front, the miner said it would start drilling shortly.

The company has also agreed to terms with the previous mine contractor, Talqvist, to purchase its workshop on site to accommodate the company's fleet of trucks and is negotiating the lease and/or purchase of vehicles for its fleet from the mine contractor, as well as from Caterpillar Finland.