Antilles Gold Ltd (ASX:AAU, OTCQB:ANTMF) is looking to raise A$2 million after costs.
The company will issue 64 million fully paid new shares at A$0.033 each to raise the cash, which will be used to drill the highly prospective El Pilar copper-gold porphyry deposit, and its overlying gold-copper oxide cap in central Cuba.
The first stage of the drilling program will involve 7,000 metres of shallow (100-metre) holes on the copper-gold oxide cap at El Pilar and around five holes for 700 metres into the highly prospective underlying copper porphyry deposit.
Drilling is expected to start in late January or early February 2023 and a more substantial follow-up program on the porphyry deposit will follow.
About the raise
Antilles will issue around 61 million new shares on or about December 20, 2022.
Notably, 3 million new shares will be issued to the company’s chairman, Brian Johnson, to raise A$99,000 subject to approval by shareholders, illustrating internal confidence.
Ensuring funding
To ensure funding of Antilles’ intended activities through to June 2023, Johnson has advised that his trustee company, Moonstar Investments Pty Ltd, is prepared to provide a Convertible Note to Antilles with a face value of A$1 million, with expiry on December 31, 2023, and an interest rate of 8% pa.
All or part of the note may be converted to AAU shares at A$0.05 each up to March 31, 2023, at A$0.07 each between April 1 and June 30, 2023, and thereafter at a 15% discount to the 15-day VWAP.
To minimise near-term dilution for shareholders, Antilles is negotiating to establish a facility that would fund the exploration program in Cuba in 2023 and 2024.
Antilles is confident that both the facility and Convertible Note will be able to be repaid from proceeds of approximately US$30 million of contractual claims against the Dominican Republic Government from a previous project.
The Tribunal involved in the arbitration under the rules of the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington DC will complete the evaluation of the claims at a hearing in the first week of June 2023, with proceeds from their rulings expected by the end of 2023.