Gemfields Group Limited (AIM:GEM) announced the completion of a fully underwritten rights issue, raising $30 million of new capital.
Some 556.2 million new shares are being issued to investors.
Eligible shareholders took up 82.4% of the shares on offer, with the remainder taken up by underwriters, including Assore International and Rational Expectations.
In London, Gemfields shares were on the front foot on Friday, climbing just over 4% to change hands at 4.38p.
Gemfields last month announced it was restarting open-pit mining at the Kagem mine, in Zambia, to recover more premium emeralds (after cost a cost-saving pause in January).
In the intervening months Gemfields processed Kagem’s ‘significant ore stockpile’.
Emerald production in 2025, up until May, had been in line with management expectations, and, it described auction results in late April as “encouraging”.
A return of “full-scale” mining would continue to be assessed "as market conditions develop”, it said at that time.
Previously, in April, when the rights issue was first announced, the gemstone miners highlighted that the rights issue would provide the funding headroom to support plans to improve volumes.
London-based stockbroker Panmure Liberum repeated a ‘buy’ recommendation, with a lofty price target of 20p.