PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Calidus Resources will raise A$20-million in a share placement to fund lithium and gold exploration work, and to ramp up activities at its Warrawoona gold project.
The ASX-listed miner said on Friday it had received firm commitments from professional and sophisticated investors for the placement of more than 29.8-million shares at a price of 67c each.
The company’s largest shareholder, Alkane Resources, has subscribed for A$3-million of new shares in the company.
Calidus MD Dave Reeves said that while operations at Warrawoona continued to ramp up well, with nameplate production due during this quarter, the initial cashflows had been committed to reducing debt.
He said the additional capital raised would allow Calidus to immediately accelerate its strategy to unlock its growth projects, which have potential to generate significant returns for shareholders.
“These growth projects include plans for drilling at lithium and gold prospects, commencing early works at Blue Spec and expanding the throughput of the Warrawoona mill to treat fresh material at 20% above nameplate capacity.”
Proceeds of the placement will be used to fund an expanded lithium exploration campaign on the Pirra lithium joint venture (JV), and to cover the costs associated with the proposed demerger of the Pirra lithium JV.
Funds would also go towards gold exploration and to fund plant expansion works at Warrawoona with the aim of increasing current throughput by up to 20% to 100 000 oz/y.