Botswana Diamonds raises £500k in placing to fund exploration

AIM-listed Botswana Diamonds has raised £500,000 through the placing of new ordinary shares at 1p each to help fund ongoing diamond exploration in South Africa and Botswana and for additional working capital purposes.

The placing shares represent around 9.8% of the company's enlarged issued share capital.

On Tuesday, Botswana Diamonds said it had started work on its joint venture with Alrosa, to follow-up on 15 previously identified priority geophysical targets in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

The company said ground magnetics will be used to supplement the airborne gravity and airborne magnetic data obtained in earlier work, while a soil sample programme will operate in conjunction with the magnetic surveys. The objective is to turn geophysical targets already identified into drill targets.

At 1145 GMT, the shares were up 1.3% to 1.19p.