Dampier Gold has locked in a $6 million capital raise to fund its ongoing exploration program in WA’s Eastern Goldfields. The company says its placement was oversubscribed and well supported by both institutional and strategic investors, with global financiers Canaccord Genuity acting as lead manager to the capital raising.
The welcome funding is ear-marked to expedite exploration across Dampier’s Zuleika Shear projects near Kalgoorlie, with over 8,000m of aircore drilling set to kick off in early 2021.
Dampier’s placement will be made to professional, sophisticated and institutional investors, with a total of 109.1 million shares being issued in two tranches to satisfy the ASX listing rules. The shares will be issued at $0.055 each, which equates to around a 15 per cent discount to Monday’s closing price of $0.065.
Subscribers will receive a one for three free attaching option exercisable at $0.10 before the 31st of January 2023.
Dampier Gold Managing Director, Annie Guo said: “The strong demand from institutions and strategic investors reflects the quality of Dampier’s projects, its Tier-1 location and immense potential for further growth.”
"Over the past 6 months, Dampier’s exploration team has propelled Dampier from an early stage explorer to a company with the potential to enhance existing resources and with multiple drill targets. This early exploration success confirms the significant potential of Dampier’s asset portfolio and the ability of its skilled and committed exploration team.”
“Having generated very strong financial support, the Company remains sharply focussed on strategic exploration. The Directors are confident that by unlocking the full value of our existing targets, whilst simultaneously adding new priority targets through intelligently planned and managed exploration by our highly experienced team, will generate substantial future growth for the Company.”
The funds from the placement are slated to accelerate exploration across Dampier’s four key project areas which overlie the exceptional gold-bearing terrane surrounding Kalgoorlie. The company’s projects include the Menzies and Goongarrie tenure north of Kalgoorlie and the Zuleika and Credo projects to the west of the gold mining centre.
Dampier’s flagship project is the Zuleika Shear gold project which is located around 25km to the west-northwest of Kalgoorlie. The project covers more than 20km strike of the gold-rich Zuleika and Carnage Shears, with the company’s tenure extending north-west from the 7 million-ounce Kundana mining centre which is managed by top-tier gold miner, Northern Star.
The Zuleika Shear also hosts the 3-million-ounce White Foil and Frog Legs mines which are operated by Evolution Mining and sit just 3km south of Dampier’s tenement boundary.
The gold deposits on the Zuleika Shear have a relatively small surface footprint and extend near vertically into the roots of the Archean stratigraphy where underground mining at the Kundana operation currently extend to more than 650m below surface. The architecture and shape of these ore systems makes exploration challenging but once a company defines the outline of the auriferous system, it can prove incredibly lucrative.
Dampier’s tenure at Zuleika is a joint venture with Torian Gold, with the Dampier currently earning a 75 per cent interest in the tenure by spending $1 million over a 4-year period - a total which the company should be rapidly approaching.
As a result of the successful raise, Dampier is now fully funded and intends to launch into 8,000m of drilling across the Zuleika project commencing in early 2021, with the Paradigm East, Browns Dam and Castle Hill prospects clearly in the company’s sights. A further 2,000m of reverse circulation and diamond drilling will follow soon after, just up the road, at Credo.
Dampier’s exploration program will flow on from this early start, with follow up drilling expected at Zuleika with mapping, sampling and drilling also being planned at Menzies and Goongarrie.
In the wake of a recent flow of promising results from the Zuleika Shear, Credo and Menzies projects and with more than $6 million in the kitty, Dampier looks to be in pole position to put pedal to the metal and see just how many more ounces of gold the terrane surrounding Kalgoorlie is willing to give up in the coming year.
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