Great Basin Gold announces $50 mln bought deal financing

Great Basin Gold (TSE:GBG) (AMEX:GBG) said late Thursday that it has agreed to a C$50 million bought deal financing.
The company said it entered into the agreement with a syndicate of underwriters led by RBC Capital Markets, who will purchase, on a bought deal basis, 61 million Great Basin common shares at a price of 82 cents each.
Great Basin Gold has also granted the underwriters an over-allotment option to purchase up to an additional 15 percent of the offering, for a period of 30 days following the closing of the deal.
The new funds will be used toward working capital for the development and ramp up of the company's Burnstone Mine in South Africa, it said.
"The company has reviewed its cash flow forecast and based on the significant amount of progress and underground development already completed and underway at Burnstone, the resolution of the water issues affecting the mine, and development rates at target levels, we believe the fundraising is sufficient to fund working capital at Burnstone until Q3 2012 when we expect the mine to be cash flow positive," said president and CEO, Ferdi Dippenaar.
"Equipment and mining teams required to achieve the target levels of production are in place and long hole stoping is performing in line with expectations."
The financing is scheduled to close around March 28, 2012, subject to the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange.
On Wednesday, the company gave an operation update on its Burnstone Mine. It said "significant progress" had been made on the ramp-up in drilling since the end of December last year, with the water issues resolved and reef development rates achieving planned levels of 40 metres per month.
Burnstone is the first greenfield operation to come online in South Africa's Witwatersrand Basin in 30 years.
Great Basin Gold said that square metres available for stoping at the South African mine were up 71 percent to 12,356 square metres, with an additional 6,000 square metres partially developed.
Underground productivity has been improving through de-bottlenecking and infrastructure development, and Burnstone is expected to be cash flow positive - after capital investment - by early in the third-quarter of 2012.
Burnstone's production targets for the coming year are 90,000 to 100,000 ounces gold at a cash cost of $900 to $1,000 per ounce, Great Basin Gold said.