Helix Resources Limited (ASX: HLX) has announced a capital raising of up to approximately $13 million to accelerate its extensive copper exploration activity in the prolific copper-endowed Cobar region of NSW.
I am extremely heartened by the strong support we have received for this equity raising, particularly from some of the major names in the institutional mining and resources investment community, which further validates our unwavering efforts and exploration objective in the Cobar region to build copper inventory and demonstrate a development pathway,” Managing Director Mike Rosenstreich said.
“We are now fully funded to drill-out resources and prospects, further generate and advance targets across our extensive tenement package and undertake preliminary mining studies and metallurgical work.
“There is growing investor and corporate interest in Cobar copper assets and the diverse production options; we plan to advance our assets to become part of those regional development scenarios to unlock significant value for our shareholders.
“It is an exciting time to be an investor of Helix and I welcome our new investors to the register. I look forward to keeping you all abreast of our exploration activities with a significant pipeline of news flow anticipated over the next 12 months.”
Equity Raising Helix is seeking to raise up to approximately $13 million through the issue of up to approximately 1.1 billion new shares at an issue price of $0.012 per share.
The Equity Raising comprises $11 million in a two tranche Placement and a Share Purchase Plan (SPP) of up to $2 million.
Binding commitments have been received for the Placement. The majority of the Placement has been allocated to institutional mining and resources investors; the first time the company has secured a significant institutional presence on its register.
Use of Proceeds
Mr Rosenstreich said this is a significant capital raising for Helix motivated by recent exploration successes and a desire to rapidly unlock value for shareholders.
He said these funds enable the company to accelerate its copper focused exploration programme in the greater Cobar region with the financial certainty to complete major drilling programs designed to add substantially to its existing copper resources.
The funds to be raised are allocated primarily to drilling and other activities, applied to:
- Copper discovery and resource growth at Rochford (includes Canbelego Project);
- Copper discovery and resource growth at Collerina (includes CZ Project);
- Metallurgical testwork and development studies; and
- General working capital and raising costs. Helix has recently reported1 highly encouraging exploration results supporting its exploration target model for ‘Cobar-style’ deposits to rapidly move the Canbelego Deposit and Rochford prospects forward where approximately 60% of the overall exploration program will be directed.
At Collerina, the company is refining its geological models for the CZ Deposit, based on the ‘Tritton-style’ of copper (+gold) deposits and will shortly also commence regional scale work to identify and confirm the potential for regional prospects to be advanced to resource definition type drilling to add to the existing CZ Mineral Resource.
To achieve an accelerated programme and deploy funds efficiently the company is successfully recruiting to increase its exploration team, based in Orange, NSW. Over the next 12 to 18 months Helix’s focus is primarily on moving copper opportunities “up the Pyramid”.
