Gold producer Austral Gold (ASX:AGD) completed a private placement, raising $8.5 million before costs to fund its exploration and processing expansion across South America.
The capital raise involved the issuance of 46,977,778 new fully paid ordinary shares at a price of $0.18 per share.
Following regulatory approval from the TSX Venture Exchange, the company confirmed that all firm commitments have been received.
Aitken Mount Capital Partners acted as the sole lead manager and book runner for the placement, introducing a new group of Australian institutional and sophisticated investors to the company's registry.
The company intends to deploy the fresh capital to accelerate high-priority projects in Argentina and Chile.
Austral Gold's Chair, Eduardo Elsztain, described the raise as a "vote of confidence" in the company's dual-track strategy of strengthening current operations while advancing its exploration portfolio.
At the time of reporting, Austral Gold's share price was $0.20.