Navarre Minerals (ASX: NML) has launched a $9.5 million fundraising round to fund resource growth at the Mt Carlton gold mining in North Queensland.
The company plans to raise $4.5 million through an equity offering and up to an additional $5 million through an unsecured stock purchase plan (SPP).
The increase will accelerate exploration activities on the recently acquired project following positive drilling results that confirmed the potential for further reserve and resource growth.
Drilling at the Mt Carlton United gold-silver-copper deposit showed ‘exceptional’ grade and continuity with intersections grading up to 22.9 grams per tonne gold, 1,327 g/t silver and 4.2% copper.
The results are expected to contribute to an updated resource estimate for Mount Carlton United and improved estimates for satellite deposits including Delta, BV7 and Telstra Hill.
Location structure
The $4.5 million placement will include an offering of new fully paid common stock of Navarre to eligible investors at $0.066 per share.
It will result in the issuance of approximately 68.2 million shares representing approximately 4.9% of Navarre’s existing issued share capital.
Navarre expects its free float and cash to increase as the company’s major shareholders, Evolution Mining and Agnico Eagle, opted out of the placement.
The Offering will be managed by Ord Minnett.
Upon completion of the placement, Navarre will offer eligible shareholders the opportunity to participate in an unsecured SPP to raise up to an additional $5 million.
Applications will be invited for up to $30,000 of shares issued at the same price as the placement, without brokerage fees or other transaction costs.
Exciting time
Navarre chief executive Ian Holland said the fundraising was launched at an “exciting time” in the company’s history.
“Since we took ownership of the Mt Carlton operation last year, our team has significantly improved our understanding of the project and its prospectivity, which has resulted in the production of very encouraging and quality drill results in virtually all satellite deposits,” he said. .
“With the momentum of Mt Carlton, we believe the time is right to intensify exploration activities as we seek to expand the growing resource base and convert more resources into reserves for our processing facility at the state of the art.”
Milestone
Mr Holland said the fundraising would be a significant milestone in Mt Carlton’s history as it transitions from a non-core asset for former owner Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) to the core asset of Mt Carlton. a Targeted Emerging Producer.
Proceeds would be used for infill and step-out drilling on known mineralization around the Mt Carlton and Crush Creek projects, as well as regional exploration to add to planned production volumes.
