PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold developer Dacian Gold will raise A$40-million in a two-tranche institutional share placement to fund exploration and development work at its assets in Western Australia.

The first tranche of the placement will consist of 99.3-million shares, priced at 28c each, to raise an initial A$27.8-million under the company’s initial placement capacity.

The second tranche placement of some 43.6-million new shares, to raise a further A$12.2-million, would be subject to shareholder approval at an upcoming extraordinary general meeting scheduled for early in July.

Dacian on Wednesday also reported that it would undertake a share purchase plan (SPP), capped at A$5-million, allowing shareholders to subscribe for an additional A$30 000 worth of new shares in the company.

The SPP will open on June 3 and will close on June 22.

The company told shareholders that funds raised would be used to accelerate a significant 300 000 m drill programme across the Mt Morgans and Redcliffe operations, predominantly, as well as to advance the high-grade Redcliffe deposits into production.

Funds would also go towards re-starting underground production from the Greater Westralia mining area, and to fund general working capital.

“A busy 2021 financial year where we established our platform for growth through the acquisition of the Redcliffe project and completion of the technical evaluation of Greater Westralia, has culminated in the opportunity to accelerate multiple mines into production simultaneously,” said Dacian MD Leigh Junk.

“In combination with our extensive targeting work across Mt Morgans and Redcliffe to identify new baseload discoveries, we have undertaken this capital raise to both aggressively pursue these exploration targets and advance the development of these mines.

“Brining these high-grade underground and openpit mines into production at Mt Morgans and Redcliffe will provide flexibility and diversity to our operations as well as increased margins for the business as we work to bolster our upcoming life-of-mine plan.”