PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Africa-focused gold developer Tietto Minerals is now fully funded to start gold production at its Abujar project, in Côte d’Ivoire, in 2022, following a A$85-million share placement.

The ASX-listed company on Monday said it had received binding commitments for the issue of 218-million shares, at a price of 39c each, in a two-tranche share placement.

The company will issue the first 115.9-million shares under its existing placement capacity, with the remaining 101.9-million shares to be issued subject to shareholder approval at a meeting scheduled for around January 7.

The A$85-million raised, along with an existing cash reserve of A$32.8-million will be used to build the Abujar project and to continue exploration work, as well as to fund working capital.

The share placement will also complement Tietto’s debt strategy of a A$130-million to A$140-million debt facility, secured through Taurus Mining Finance.

“With support for this A$85-million placement, we now have funding in place to allow us to build Abujar and transform Tietto into West Africa’s next gold producer as we bring the project into production on schedule in 2022,” said Tietto MD Dr Caigen Wang.

“Abujar is an exciting and robust gold project, as demonstrated by our definitive feasibility study (DFS) delivered last month, and we are excited to enter this new chapter of Tietto’s history.

“We have commenced a $8.6-million early works programme including front end engineering design, site and camp construction and we have assembled an experienced project build team that can ensure we deliver gold production at Abujar on schedule and on budget.”

The DFS estimated that the Abujar project would require a capital investment of $200-million, and could generate life-of-mine (LoM) revenues of $2.87-billion, and LoM pre-tax free cash flows of $1.28-billion and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of $1.52-billion.

The project is expected to produce 260 000 oz of gold in its first full year of production, and will produce 200 000 oz/y of gold in the first six years of an 11-year mine life. LoM gold production is estimated at 155 000 oz/y.