Castle and Beadell raise funds
THE BOURSE WHISPERER : Institutional and sophisticated investors have answered the tin rattling of a couple of junior exploration plays.
Castle Raises $4.8 Million to Fund Exploration
Castle Minerals has received commitments to raise $4.8 million through the issue of 13.88 million fully paid ordinary shares at $0.35c per share.
Key participants in the raising included existing long term Castle shareholders and new shareholder, Resource Capital Funds.
Resource Capital Funds is a mining-focused Denver based private equity firm, which has taken a 4.3% interest in Castle.
Castle has earmarked the funds to advance gold exploration on its 11,000 square kilometre land holding in Ghana and follow up results reported from its new Baayiri and Kandia gold discoveries in north-west Ghana where drilling recently recommenced.
Castle Minerals managing director Mike Ivey said the company was very pleased by the support received from its existing shareholder base and welcomed the addition of Resource Capital Funds to the register.
“With over $8 million in cash, we will be able to accelerate our exploration efforts for 2011/12, particularly on our Wa Project which is one of the most prospective unexplored gold belts in West Africa,” Ivey said in the company’s ASX announcement.
The placement was managed by Southern Cross Equities and will be completed under Castle’s 15% placement capacity.
Beadell resources completes $30M capital raising
Beadell Resources has also been on the receiving end of some hearty commitments from institutional and sophisticated investors.
These were to subscribe for shares in connection with the placement to raise gross proceeds of $30 million at an issue price of $0.85 per share.
The heavily oversubscribed placement was jointly managed by Southern Cross Equities and Ord Minnett.
The net proceeds will be put towards Beadell’s equity portion of the total cost of construction of the CIL plant at the Tucano gold project.
The company will also use the raised funds to continue aggressive resource extension and regional exploration targeting an additional 3 million ounces of gold to take Beadell’s total resource position to 7 million ounces of gold over the next two years.
“We are very pleased with the strong support we received from existing and new shareholders,” Beadell Resources managing director Peter Bowler said in the company’s ASX announcement.
“This is recognition of the quality of our gold and iron ore project in Brazil as we quickly move towards becoming a significant gold producer in the first half of next year.
“This modest raising, undertaken at a minimal discount to our current share price, aligns with the company’s strategy of maintaining a conservative balance sheet whilst minimising dilution for our shareholders.”