Antipa Minerals Ltd (ASX:AZY)'s war chest is bulging following a non-underwritten placement to raise roughly A$9 million before costs through the issue of around 333.7 million fully paid ordinary shares at A$0.027 per share.
The placement met with strong demand from international and domestic institutions together with sophisticated and professional investors.
There is further potential to increase the placement size to A$10 million if major shareholder, Newcrest Mining, exercises its right to maintain its 9.9% shareholding within five business days of receipt of the issue terms.
Share purchase plan announced
The company has also launched a share purchase plan (SPP) targeting Australian and New Zealand investors, which could add an extra A$3 million to the kitty, taking the capital raise to up to A$12 million before costs – A$13 million pending Newcrest’s decision.
Antipa will issue one free attaching unlisted option for every two new shares subscribed for and issued under the placement and SPP.
Options will be exercisable at A$0.04 with an expiry date one year from the date of issue.
Euroz Hartleys Securities Limited, Shaw and Partners Limited and Canaccord Genuity (TSX:CF, LSE:CF) (Australia) Limited acted as joint lead managers on the placement.
Funds for Minyari Dome
Proceeds will be used to accelerate exploration and appraisal activities at the 100%-owned Minyari Dome Gold Project, including aggressive resource expansion drilling and a pre-feasibility (PFS) study, which is already underway.
Following the recent successful completion of the scoping study, which confirmed that the project is a technically robust and commercially attractive potential standalone gold mining and processing operation, more detailed project development studies on Minyari Dome are set to continue through the rest of 2022 and into 2023.
These include the recently started PFS and further metallurgical test work.
The Minyari Dome Project exploration program for the second half of the year includes a significant diamond core and reverse circulation (RC) drill program which commenced in June, designed to test a range of gold-copper-cobalt resource growth targets and prospects.
Managing director Roger Mason said: “The 100%-owned Minyari Dome Project offers Antipa a compelling gold production opportunity in WA’s Paterson Province, which is strategically located just 35 kilometres from Newcrest’s Telfer 22-million-tonne-per-annum processing facility.
“Over the last 18 months, we have started to truly unlock the potential of this asset.
“Given the latent further value capable of being added via the drill bit, we remain committed to continuing a substantial exploration program across our 144 square kilometres of tenure at Minyari Dome.
“This raising delivers Antipa the ability to rapidly progress our resource growth drilling at Minyari Dome, as well as the pre-feasibility study and its associated test-work streams.
“I would like to thank our existing shareholders who supported this capital raising and welcome new shareholders for the next, exciting phase for our business.”