Australian company SolGold has secured investment from Newcrest Mining of $40m to fund the advancement of Cascabel, its copper-gold porphyry project in Ecuador.
The funds were raised through private placement of 78,889,080 new ordinary shares.
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According to SolGold, the investment will be used for continued exploration of the Cascabel project, as well as the company’s general working capital and pan Ecuadorean exploration strategy.
Newcrest Mining managing director and CEO Sandeep Biswas said: "The Cascabel project, and surrounding region generally, appear to be prospective and we are pleased to have increased our interest in the region as SolGold continue to increase their drilling activity."
With the fresh round of investment, Newcrest’s interest in SolGold increased to 14.54%.
SolGold CEO Nick Mather said: "The arrangement with Newcrest, particularly in the area of technical liaison over the past six months since their original investment into SolGold, has been pleasingly smooth and the SolGold board and management are encouraged by this further endorsement of the technical merits and management's commitment to the Cascabel project, SolGold's exploration strategy across Ecuador and SolGold's interests generally."
Furthermore, SolGold raised $1.23m through a placement process involving Ecuadorian investors.
Cascabel is located in northern Ecuador on the northern section of the Andean Copper Belt.
The company noted that the project is characterised by 15 identified targets, drilling intersections over 1km in length at potentially economic grades, and high copper and gold grades in richer sections.
