Stellar Diamonds (LON:STEL) has raised just shy of £400,000 to spend on earth moving equipment at its Tongo and Baoulé projects in Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Baoulé will receive most of the equipment, Stellar added, to boost its mining and production rate as part of the large scale bulk sampling, or trial mining, planned over the next twelve months.
First diamonds were recently recovered from Baoulé as part of the processing plant commissioning process and Stellar now wants to increase mining and processing capacity.
The machines are being bought for €0.5mln from Stellar's major shareholder, Foradex Invest SRL.
To raise the money, Stellar issued 25.56mln shares at 1.55p with a warrant attached.