North River Resources (LON:NRRP) has raised £3 million through a conditional share placing, the company announced today, as it issued an operations update.
The shares have been placed with new and existing shareholders at 3 pence per share, and the funds will be used to accelerate the firm's assets in Namibia.
Here, said managing director David Steinepreis, the company was making "excellent progress".
Other highlights in the statement included the beginning of drilling at the previously producing Namib lead and zinc mine in Namibia and the expected drilling on the Witvlei and Dordabis copper projects, also in Namibia.
Also featured was the identification of a "substantial" iron ore and phosphate target on the Monte Muande project in Mozambique by Baobab Resources (LON:BAO) - the firm's JV-partner.
Steinepreis said: "This has been an extremely active period for the company and we have made excellent progress in developing our Namibian portfolio.
"In particular, the potential of the Namib lead zinc project is increasing as we look to understand the extent of the main Junction ore body which, if the testing goes well, we intend to bring back into production.
"At our copper projects at Witvlei and Dordabis, where we already have defined in-house resources (non-JORC), we are evaluating the implementation of a Dense Media Separation process which would greatly improve the economic potential of the project.
"In addition, our gold, base metal and nuclear fuels interests continue to look promising, with a 2km long gold in soil anomaly being tested at Ubib, and a work programme due to commence in conjunction with our strategic partner Extract Resources to define nuclear fuels targets for follow-up drilling.
"This progress, in tandem with our joint venture with Baobab Resources, places us in a strong position to build value through resource development."
The conditional placing sees 105 million new ordinary shares of 0.2 pence each in the company issued with new and existing shareholders at a price of 3 pence per placing share.
The placing shares will represent around 14,97 percent of the enlarged share capital. It is expected that admission on AIM will become effective and that dealings in the placing shares will commence at 8.00am tomorrow (Tuesday 12 April).
With regard to its joint venture with Baobab Resources, North River said there had been continued development of the Monte Muande project in the Tete province of Mozambique, which is prospective for magnetite/phosphorus, base and precious metals.
An iron and phosphate exploration target of 200-250 million tonnes has been published, which demonstrated the significant potential of the project, said North River, and the shallow depth of the current modelling suggests that further mineralisation may be delineated following deeper drilling programmes.
A drilling campaign, which will be led and fully funded by Baobab Resources, is expected to commence in the second quarter of 2011.