- Santana Minerals (SMI) has officially completed its buyout of New Zealand-based Matakanui Gold and tapped investors for a neat $7.5 million
- The company raised the funds by placing 37.5 million shares at 20 cents a pop, after consolidating shares on a one-to-70 basis
- At the forefront of the Matakanui buyout is the Bendigo Ophir Gold Project in Central Otago, New Zealand
- Santana has already outlined a 39-hole drilling program to begin exploring its new project in mid-November
- Shares in the company are yet to break out of their trading halt from last week, last trading for 0.3 cents each on October 27
Santana Minerals (SMI) has officially completed its buyout of New Zealand-based Matakanui Gold and tapped investors for a neat $7.5 million.
At the forefront of the Matakanui buy is the Bendigo-Ophir Gold Project in Central Otago, New Zealand, which Santana will start exploring right away.
The Matakanui purchase and cap raise
Santana raised the $7.5 million by placing 37.5 million new shares at 20 cents a pop — a massive premium to the company’s last closing price of 0.3 cents.
Of course, the company received shareholder approval in October to consolidate shares on a one-to-70 basis, and new shares were placed post-consolidation, meaning the placement price isn’t as alarming as it looks.
As part of the buyout, Santana issued just over 38 million shares to Matakanui’s former shareholders.
“Santana is excited about the growth opportunities that come with the completion of the Bendigo-Ophir Project acquisition and looks forward to announcing details of the finalised exploration program shortly,” Santana CEO Shane Pike said.
On top of the purchase, Santana has appointed Warren Batt and Frederick Bunting as non-executive directors, effective from today. Tony McDonald has resigned as a director of Santana.
Exploration work
In tandem with today’s purchase announcement, Santana revealed to shareholders its exploration plans for the new project.
The company said it plans to kick off a major drilling program at the Bendigo-Ophir Project in mid-November.
As part of the program, the company will drill 39 holes for just under 4500 metres. This will be split between reverse circulation (RC) drilling for 3260 metres and diamond drilling for 1200 metres.
Santana said the main focus of the drilling will be to extend the resource at Bendigo-Ophir. The priority, the company said, will be on extending the existing inferred resource base of 253,000 ounces of gold.
The company will also take on some mapping and geochemical sampling across several regional gold targets.
Shares in Santana Minerals are yet to break out of their trading halt from October 28. The company’s shares last traded for 0.3 cents each in a $6.11 million market cap.