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West Wits Mining (ASX:WWI) has as much as $34 million in its pocket to carry Qala Shallows through to steady-state production after landing “a strong vote of confidence” with an upsized placement wrapped up this week.
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The explorer had originally banked an equity placement of A$27.5M, but that was increased to $33.74M following Tribeca Investment coming onboard.
The sizeable capital at West Wits’ fingertips now means the Qala Shallows project is fully funded and can roll on to steady-state production. The hopeful Australian producer expects the project to churn out 70,000oz of gold per annum over the next 12 years, starting from March; first pour is scheduled for then.
“This funding materially strengthens our balance sheet, enhances flexibility as we optimise our senior debt solution, and accelerates our transition into a gold producer,” West Wits chief executive Rudi Deysel declared.
After coming onboard in the extra institutional placement round just this week, Tribeca director Ben Cleary explained: “We see a strong near-term catalyst at Qala Shallows − now commissioned − with first gold targeted for March, marking South Africa’s first new underground mine in 15 years.”
Cash-wise, the company is issuing 421.75M new fully paid shares to Tribeca at an offer price of 8cps. Through Thursday, West Wits had hovered at 8.2cps.
The original $27.5M placement before today had been a similar price: The explorer had offered up 343 million shares at 8c, representing a 7% discount on the 15-day volume weighted average price of West Wits equities.
Every two shares in that bundle had been packaged with one unlisted option to buy more shares at 11c each through the next three trading years.
To today, WWI has been trading +418% higher than 12 months ago.
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