Meteoric Resources NL (ASX:MEI) is raising up to A$2.72 million to complete a scoping study at the Juruena Gold Project in Brazil and for preliminary mining studies for open pit and underground mining at Butchers Creek, part of the Palm Springs Gold Project in Western Australia.
MEI has raised A$1.7 million through a placement of 100 million new shares to sophisticated and professional investors along with a one for five attaching option exercisable at A$0.024 expiring May 28, 2023.
This issue price of A$0.017 per share is at a 11.8% discount to the last traded share price of A$0.019.
Eligible shareholders will also be offered the right to participate in a fully underwritten share purchase plan (SPP) entitlement offer on the same terms, to raise an additional A$1.02 million (before costs).
“We greatly appreciate the support of our long-term holders and I’m very happy on this occasion to be extending the offer to all of our shareholders via the SPP,” MEI managing director Andrew Tunks said.
To be used across MEI’s global assets
MEI will use the money raised to further develop its gold assets in Australia and Brazil.
“As we approach the close of 2021 the company has commenced significant studies on both its core projects,” Tunks said.
“At Juruena we are completing a full scoping study with Brazilian mining group GE 21. This will include a revisit of the 2021 resource to remodel for open pit mining as well as plant flow sheet design, environmental considerations and an economic model.
“Results from the scoping study will be presented to the market in Q1 2022 In conjunction with the scoping study we have been preparing the documentation to submit Mining Licence applications over the three key licences that host the known gold prospects.”
The global resource for Juruena was announced in mid-2021: 1.9 million tonnes at 6.3 g/t for 398,500 ounces of gold.
There are impressive numbers at Palm Springs also. The current resource is 5.6 million tonnes at 2.0 g/t for 357,000 ounces of gold.
“At Palm Springs we had a strong year of exploration results confirming our mineralisation model. This is crucial as it will drive both our development studies and our 2022 exploration,” Tunks said.
“We have made strong progress with the local Indigenous groups and expect to have some exciting new areas available for exploration in the next field season.”
Acquisitions to come
MEI is also looking to add to asset base via acquisition and is eyeing off a number of advanced gold projects.
“Project acquisition has been a strong driver of our market capitalisation in recent years and we remain optimistic about the state of the market and opportunities to expand our portfolio of projects,” Tunks said.