Monday 5 November 2012

Aureus Mining: Canadian brokers underwrite £42.5 mln of share placing


Aureus Mining (LON:AUE, TSE:AUE) has confirmed that £42.5 million of the share placing will be underwritten by a group of Canadian brokers.
On Friday it launched a US$80 million funding to cover part of the costs to build the New Liberty mine in Liberia – with talks underway for additional debt finance to cover the remainder of the development costs.
The Canadian brokers will underwrite the issue of almost 100 million units, each comprising one share and a quarter of a warrant. Units are being priced at 50 pence, or 80 Canadian cents.
Aureus told investors on Friday that it is continuing talks with a number of banks and financial institutions over a project debt facility to fund the rest of the project.
A feasibility study last month described the proposed mine as “economically viable and robust”, and estimated the initial cost of building the mine at US$140 million.
New Liberty is located in the Bea Mountain mining licence, covers 457 square kilometres and has a 25-year, renewable mineral development agreement. The environmental permissions for the project were also awarded last month.
It has an indicated mineral resource of 1.143 million ounces grading 3.6 grams per tonne with the potential to support production of 120,000 ounces a year for the first four years.
And based on a US$1,400 an ounce gold price, it would provide a 37 per cent initial rate of return for Aureus. Total revenues are forecast at US$1.2 billion with pre-tax cash flows estimated at US$338 million. 
Beyond New Liberty, Aureus is also advancing a regional exploration programme within the massive and highly prospective Bea Mountain license.

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