Source : THE AGE NEWS
Auric Mining has secured $17 million in firm commitments through a strongly supported placement to accelerate its ambitious growth strategy across its Western Australian gold portfolio. The two-tranche placement, set at 18.5 cents per share, has generated keen interest from new and existing Australian and international institutions, giving the company a significant war chest to fund acquisitions and fast-track exploration.
Today’s early trading reached a high of 20.5 cents per share, a hike of 11 per cent on the placement price, suggesting the attractively priced raise has been well received by the market.
The company says once the dust settles, the cash injection will boost its total war chest to almost $50 million and will be primarily directed towards growing Auric’s resource base and advancing its hub-and-spoke strategy centred on the proposed Burbanks processing facility near Coolgardie.
Specifically, funds will support the purchase and launch of drilling at the company’s new Iron Maiden project, five kilometres south of the historic gold town of Norseman and 180km south of Burbanks. That acquisition appears well-timed, with the Norseman district emerging once more as an active exploration and production centre.
‘The Company’s aim is to become a standalone gold producer in the fastest possible time.’
Auric Mining managing director Mark English
Next to Iron Maiden, Pantoro Gold holds a significant 4.6-million-ounce gold resource and is targeting annual production of between 90,000 and 105,000 ounces, highlighting the region’s prospectivity. Although Iron Maiden has seen little exploration in the past 20 years, it has a combined historical 2012 resource estimate for the Iron Duke and Surprise deposits of 1.4 million tonnes at 1.5 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for 68,500 ounces.
The new funds will also back extensional and resource growth drilling at the recently acquired Union Jack project, immediately east of Coolgardie and just 15km from the proposed Burbanks processing hub.
Rounding out the use of funds for resource growth, Auric is progressively de-risking its flagship Munda gold mine, with grade-control and growth drilling. The Munda starter pit campaign was highly successful, producing 8886 ounces of gold and exceeding modelling predictions by a massive 46 per cent. It delivered record revenue of $44.8 million and a net profit after tax of $19.3 million for the half-year to June 2026.
Auric Mining managing director Mark English said: “This strongly supported placement allows us to consolidate two new projects, further increasing our global resource base. With additional funds, we will accelerate drilling activities across our expanded project portfolio targeting near term resource expansion.”
The lion’s share of the fresh funding, however, will be funnelled towards relocating a recently purchased infrastructure package to Burbanks, which is expected to be delivered in December.
The company first picked up the 180,000-tonne-per-annum (tpa) Burbanks plant, 20km south of Coolgardie, in late 2024 for just $4.4 million, with plans to refurbish it as a centralised processing hub, drawing ore from a string of satellite deposits, including its Munda gold mine.
Since then, Auric has consolidated plans to lift the facility throughput capacity to 600,000tpa, triggering a hunt for the processing elements needed to deliver the expansion. Auric cleverly leapt that hurdle two months ago by pouncing on a package of plant infrastructure for the bargain-basement price of just $1.2 million.
Management says buying the equivalent infrastructure as new equipment could have cost between $15 million and $25 million, giving the company a serious leg-up on its overall infrastructure costs. That advantage remains significant even after allowing for refurbishment, modifications, cabling, switchgear and other ancillary costs needed to bring the equipment into operation.
The placement will occur in two tranches. The first tranche will raise an estimated $8.7 million using the company’s existing placement capacity, with settlement scheduled for mid-November. The second tranche, estimated at $8.3 million, is subject to shareholder approval at a meeting slated for mid-December. Auric’s directors have committed to subscribe for $120,000 in the placement.
In addition to the capital raise, Auric intends to launch a Share Purchase Plan, or “SPP”, for up to a further A$3 million from eligible existing holders at the same A$0.185 issue price.
With its saddlebags now stuffed with cash, Auric is set to hit the ground running across an expanded project portfolio. The market has clearly backed management’s hub-and-spoke strategy, and with drill rigs set to get busy at Munda and two new acquisitions, there should be plenty of news flow as the company looks to turn drill hits into mine feed for its own plant.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
