Mariana Resources to raise £6.2 mln for exploration in private placement

Mariana Resources Ltd (LON:MARL), an exploration and development company focused in Argentina and Chile, is planning a global private placement to raise £6.2 million before expenses and will use the funds to accelerate the exploration of its project portfolio, and for general corporate and working capital purposes.

In a statement published late yesterday, it said shares will be issued at 40 pence, only just below the closing price in London on the day. The fundraising is scheduled to close on or about December 9.

The placement to investors in North America will be led by Paradigm Capital Inc, while that outside North America will be brokered by finnCap.

The company's primary focus will be to fast-track exploration drilling at its flagship Las Calandrias gold discovery in southern Argentina, to define a resource and evaluate the economic potential of the project.

Mariana has an extensive portfolio of gold, silver and copper projects in Argentina and Chile. In Argentina, in addition to the Las Calandrias gold-silver discovery project, it owns the Sierra Blanca silver prospect and has a joint venture with Hochschild Mining (LON:HOC).

Mariana also owns exclusive exploration rights to a 160,000 hectare area. All of these projects are located in the Deseado Massif gold district in mining-friendly Santa Cruz province of southern Argentina, which hosts four gold/silver mines and several notable bonanza type precious metal prospects.

In Chile, Mariana has a joint venture agreement with US based international mining and natural resources company Cliffs Natural Resources (NYSE:CLF)  to explore for iron oxide-copper-gold deposits (IOCG) in a 92,000 square kilometre area (SCM Mariana Area) in north-central Chile. The SCM Mariana Area includes two IOCG exploration projects in the highly prospective Atacama Fault Zone, approximately 100 kilometres from Freeport's Candelaria Copper Mine: the 44 sq km Buenaventura and 46 sq km Perro Chico projects.