Great Southern Copper (LSE:GSCU) has raised £2 million through a private placing with existing and new investors to fund the next phase of exploration at its Mostaza copper-silver discovery in Chile.
The London-listed company, which is focused on copper-gold-silver exploration in Chile's coastal metallogenic belt, issued 133.33 million new shares at 1.5p each, a 6% discount to the previous closing price.
The new shares represent approximately 15% of the company's enlarged issued share capital, which will total 906.7 million shares following admission. Directors intend to subscribe for 4.67 million of the new shares, contributing £70,000 to the raise.
Mostaza, part of the Cerro Negro prospect within the Especularita project, has been the company's standout discovery, with Phase III drilling completed earlier this year returning intercepts including 17 metres at 0.69% copper and 48.21 g/t silver, with narrower zones grading as high as 4.24% copper and 233 g/t silver.
The planned Phase IV programme will comprise up to 5,000 metres of diamond drilling at Mostaza and the nearby Monolith target, plus up to 2,000 metres of reverse circulation drilling along the Mostaza Fault trend, alongside further metallurgical test-work across a broader range of copper-silver grades.
The company said preliminary metallurgical test-work on high-grade Mostaza samples had already delivered encouraging copper and silver recoveries using conventional flotation.
Proceeds will also fund 1,000 metres of RC drilling at the Artemisa porphyry prospect, where scout drilling has previously returned intercepts including 106 metres at 0.33% copper, alongside corporate costs and general working capital.
"This funding will allow us to build on the progress made at Mostaza and advance the discovery towards a maiden resource," said chief executive Sam Garrett, adding that the company would maintain Mostaza as its "principal priority" while advancing exploration at Artemisa.
The company said further drilling and technical studies at Artemisa would depend on available funding and be prioritised according to exploration results.