SolGold aims to raise further equity after Friday's share placing

Australian gold and copper miner SolGold’s shares soared 24% on Thursday ahead of its AIM share placing on Friday, as it said demand had been strong for its two capital raising initiatives.

On 8 July and with a revised offer on 1 August, the company agreed to raise capital through a private placement with Maxit Capital, a financial advisor, of up to $36.5m. Maxit Capital agreed to subscribe up 268.8m shares at 0.08 cents per ordinary share for proceeds of $21.5m.

The placing is expected on Friday. The company said the placement had been fully subscribed to and it will include participation by Maxit Capital, third party investors, DGR Global, a developer of resource exploration companies, and SolGold’s management.

The company said once the share placing is completed, Maxit Capital would hold an option to lead a further equity raising of up to $15m at a price to be determined by 10 October, subject to shareholder approval.

As with the first placing, Maxit Capital can include third parties subject to SolGold’s approval. The company said that demand for the second placing has been strong from a number of major international mining and resource investment funds.

SolGold said the company had entered into a number of confidentiality agreements with third party international mining companies, and several of these have conducted due diligence and project site reviews. As a result, SolGold is in advanced negotiations for the potential participation of a major international gold mining company in SolGold's capital raising initiatives.

Shares in SolGold were up 24.42% at 7.93p at 1540 BST.