Southern African resource company North River Resources (AIM: NRRP) has raised £7 million to fund the exploration and development of its assets in southern Africa, advancing towards its goal of assembling a portfolio of multi-commodity assets with mid-term production potential.
The placing of 233.3 million shares at a price of 3 pence per share was undertaken on conjunction with the proposed reverse acquisition of gold and base metal assets in Namibia from Kalahari Minerals (AIM: KAH) for a total 266 million shares worth £16.67 million, which was conditional on North River raising £5 million, resulting in Kalahari owning 43% in the company.
North River decided to raise an extra £2 million after receiving “excellent response” to the placing and said the demand at the enlarged figure was at a healthy level.
“The extent of positive interest from the investment community underpins our confidence in the quality of the assets that we are acquiring and the ability of our management and operational teams on the ground to develop them efficiently towards production,” said Managing Director of North River David Steinpreis.
Following the acquisition, North River plans to develop the Namibian assets in tandem with Kalahari, which previously spent £8 million on exploration and evaluation of the assets.
“With the ongoing operational and financial support of Kalahari, I believe we are well positioned to capitalise on the numerous opportunities that are available to us through our leveraged position in the exploration and development arena in southern Africa,” added Steinpreis.
The company has also said it has signed an indicative bid on a significant gold deposit in Namibia with financial backing from Kalahari, expecting a response early next year.
Kalahari’s copper, zinc, lead and gold asset portfolio in western and central Namibia covers 2,121 sq km (square kilometres), occupying a dominant position on the Kalahari Copper Belt. Exploration work that has so far been completed has focused on the Dordabis copper project with a JORC-compliant inferred resource of 16,000 tonnes of copper in situ, and the Witvlei project.
The Namibia portfolio also includes the Namib lead zinc mine, where non-JORC mine studies indicated surface tailings and in-situ underground reserves of 1.65Mt at 5.7% zinc, 1.6% lead and 40.5 g/t (grammes per tonne) silver, and the Ubib copper-gold project located just 15 kilometres south of the 4 million ounce Navachab gold mine.