Torque Metals raises $25M for gold project

• Torque Metals secured $25 million through a firm institutional placement.
• The issue price represented a 7.3% discount to the last closing share price.
• Proceeds will fund resource expansion drilling at the Ritz Gold Project in Western Australia.

Torque Metals (ASX:TOR) has secured $25 million in firm commitments from institutional investors to accelerate exploration at its Ritz Gold Project in Western Australia.

The capital raise strengthens the explorer's balance sheet to support its strategy of expanding its current gold resource estimate.

Torque Metals' Managing Director and CEO Craig Jones said, "To attract this level of backing is a significant endorsement of the quality of the Ritz Gold Project, the scale and prospectivity of our South Kalgoorlie land position and the strategy we have put in place to rapidly grow Torque's high-grade gold inventory."

Under the placement terms, the company will issue roughly 131.6 million new shares at $0.19 each, marking a 7.3% discount to its previous closing price.

The new funding boosts the company's total pro-forma cash reserves to $32.7 million for ongoing operations.

Following the announcement, the Tourque Metals share price was $0.19.

The Ritz Gold Project currently holds a mineral resource estimate of 351,000 ounces of gold at 3.1 grammes per tonne.

Management plans to use the capital to support an aggressive drilling campaign aimed at increasing total project scale.