Perth-based gold companies Perseus Mining and Kingsrose Mining have strengthened their balance sheets after completing share placements worth a combined $40 million.
Perseus raised $32 million with UBS as sole lead manager and GMP Securities as co-manager, while Kingsrose raised $8 million with Bell Potter Securities as sole lead manager.
Kingsrose completed its placement to institutional and sophisticated investors at 35 cents per share, an 11.4 per cent discount to the recent trading price.
Perseus’s placement was completed at 47 cents per share, which represented a 6.9 per cent discount to the recent trading price.
Its funds will go towards productivity improvements and access to the eastern pits at the Edikan gold mine, as well as enable greater balance sheet flexibility.
Proceeds from Kingsrose’s placement are devoted towards the ongoing mine development of its second mine, Telang Santo.
The Telang Santo mine is located just north of the Way Linggo Mine in southern Sumatra, Indonesia.
Kingsrose is waiting for approval from the Indonesian Mines Department to transition to full production.
Managing director Scott Huffadine said Telang Santo would be completely funded at every stage of development.
“We undertook the placement because we wanted to ensure that the company is funded through to full production at Talang Santo,” he said.
“It also means we can continue our development work at the mine while we wait for the final approval. This will ensure we can ramp-up to full production as quickly as possible once the approval is granted.”
Perseus managing director Jeff Quartermaine said its placement “will help provide us with balance sheet strength, keeping us debt free as we continue to implement the re-optimised Edikan Life of Mine plan focused on maximising cash margins, increasing gold production, reducing costs and ensuring efficient capital deployment”.
