PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Red 5 has completed a second tranche share placement of more than 522.9-million shares, at a price of 18c each, following shareholder approval.

The ASX-listed company at the end of March announced a A$125-million capital raise, consisting of a two-tranche placement to sophisticated and professional investors.

The first tranche consisted of 171.5-million shares and raised A$30.7-million under Red 5’s placement capacity, while the second tranche, to raise A$94.13-million, had been subject to shareholder approval.

The miner’s shareholders approved the placement on May 7.

Red 5 previously said that the capital raise de-risked the funding requirements to develop the proposed integrated bulk openpit and underground mining and processing operation for the King of the Hills gold project, in Western Australia.

A final feasibility study for the proposed project is on track for completion in the September quarter of this year, Red 5 said on Wednesday.

“We continue to make solid progress towards our objective of delivering this feasibility study, making a final investment decision and starting construction on one of Australia’s premier new midtier mining projects at King of the Hills, said MD Mark Williams.

He noted that significant progress had been made across multiple work-streams for the feasibility study over recent weeks, with several key items on track for completion next month.

“In addition to boosting King of the Hills’ satellite deposit mineral resource to over 300 000 oz, the completion of the mineral resource estimates has allowed our team to commence mining studies for the inclusion of these deposits in our overall mine plan and schedule.

“On other fronts, prefeasibility pricing estimates for openpit mining costs and our energy requirement on the proposed ‘build, own, operate’ basis have been confirmed by expressions of interest from mining contractors and indicative proposals received from energy suppliers.

“We have also completed a work programme to drill and assay the low-grade stockpiles present at the King of the Hills site, with a view to including these in future mineral resource models and, ultimately, in our mine plan.”

Williams said that early works design and procurement activities were also well under way.