Australia-listed New World Resources has received firm commitments to raise about A$20.4-million to advance its Antler copper project, in Arizona, in the US, towards development and production.
The placement was completed at A$0.36 a share, an 18.2% discount to the company’s last closing price on the ASX and a 17.5% discount to the 15-trading day volume-weighted average trading price.
“We are very pleased with the support received for the placement and welcome a number of highly credentialled Australian and offshore institutional investors to the register,” said New World MD Mike Haynes.
Near-term work will include expediting exploration drilling to continue to expand the resource base, while rapidly advancing Antler to production.
“We have recently defined a multitude of high-priority exploration targets that have never been drill-tested – and the funds from the placement will enable us to fast-track their evaluation,” said Haynes.
Antler is an advanced-stage, high-grade copper/zinc polymetallic deposit with a mineral resource estimate of 11.4-million tonnes at 4.1% copper-equivalent for about 467 000 t of copper-equivalent.
An enhanced scoping study, published in May, highlighted strong project economics, with a pre-tax net present value, using a 7% discount, of $835-million and a low capital expenditure of $252-million, delivering an internal rate of return of 40.2%.
Over a 13-year mine life, Antler will produce an average of 32 700 t of copper-equivalent.
A prefeasiblity study on the project is expected in the fourth quarter, with commencement of preconstruction development works targeted for the first quarter of 2025.