Tietto Minerals Ltd (ASX:TIE) has received commitments from investors to raise $17 million in a share placement priced at 26 cents.
Funding will allow Tietto to accelerate the ongoing drill-out of the rapidly expanding Abujar Gold Project in Côte d’Ivoire.
Only last week Tietto increased its JORC resource estimate by 24% to 2.15 million ounces grading 1.5 g/t gold for the two gold deposits within the Abujar Gold Project.
The capital raising has broadened the share register through the introduction of a number of international and Australian institutional investors, as well as enjoying strong support from existing shareholders.
Drill results support a high-margin gold mining operation
Tietto’s managing director Dr. Caigen Wang said: “2019 has been a year of phenomenal success at the Abujar Gold Project, with the recent upgrade of our Resources to 2.2Moz, and a large number of high grade and shallow gold intersections being reported over the past few months, suggesting excellent potential for a future high-margin mining operation.
“We are pleased to welcome our new shareholders to the register and expect to deliver a strong pipeline of exploration updates as a result of this successful capital raising which provides the company with approximately A$20.0 million including current cash.
Company-owned drill rig fleet increases to four
“Our full focus is on adding high-grade ounces to the Resource as rapidly as possible and we have ordered a 4th diamond rig to add to our existing fleet of company-owned rigs.
“Our rigs are proving to be superbly efficient, allowing us to drill at industry-low prices of less than US $35/m, saving the company an astonishing A$12 million per year assuming annual meterage of over 60,000 metres.”
Drilling to target multiple areas
Drilling programs will be split between growing the existing 2.15-million-ounce resource through extensions and regional exploration within the project.
Tietto recently commenced its largest drill campaign to date, with a plan to almost double all previous drilling at Abujar over a 10-month period through an additional 50,000 metres of diamond drilling.
This will focus on the central Abujar permit which hosts the existing JORC resource.
The company has also budgeted for a 25,000-metre program drilling high-priority regional targets on the northern and southern Abujar permits.
Two-tranche placement, directors to participate
The placement will see 65.38 million shares issued across two tranches.
Two board members of Tietto have also agreed to take part in the placement.
Non-executive director Hanjing Xu has subscribed for $200,000 worth of stock and non-executive director Mark Strizek has subscribed for $30,000 worth of stock.
Their participation, as well as the second tranche of the placement, requires shareholder approval, which will be voted on at a general meeting to be held in late December 2019.