Gold mine raises £665,000

By KENNEDY MUPESENI –
ALECTO Minerals, a gold and base metals exploration company, has raised £665,000 through a share placement to provide it with additional working capital for its gold mine project located in Mumbwa, Zambia.
With this capital, the company seeks to bring the 400,000-tonne-per-year project at its Matala Open Pit Gold project, in Mwembeshi, Mumbwa of Central Province, into low-cost production.
According to the Mining Weekly, Alecto chief executive officer Mark Jones said the company issued 831.25 million new ordinary shares at 0.08 pounds, representing about 18.64 per cent of the company’s issued share capital.
“We are mindful of dilution, so it was unfortunate that, despite strong news flow following our acquisition of Matala, there has not been greater traction in the share price, allowing us to raise funds at a premium to our last fund raiser in November 2015,” Mr Jones said.
Having finalised a feasibility study for Matala ahead of schedule, for a mine plan of four years and eight months, he said the company signed agreements with Yantai Xinhai Machinery with respect to the mine’s construction and financing.
In April, the mining conglomerate announced that Xinhai would arrange vendor financing to cover the plant and infrastructure costs.
The net proceeds of the share position would enable Alecto to continue development at Matala, while ensuring that progress continued across the company’s wider portfolio.
In Burkina Faso, the company recently had its exploration permits renewed at the Kerboulé gold project, which had an independent gold resource estimate of 6.2 million tonnes.