Santana, an Australian-listed exploration and drilling company, confirmed yesterday it had commitments to issue about 27.1 million fully paid ordinary shares through a private placement with "institutional, professional and sophisticated" investors at $NZ1.09 ($A1.15) a share.
The bulk of the capital raise would be used to conduct feasibility studies and intensify four existing drilling and exploration projects that have been named: Rise & Shine, Come in Time, Shreks and Shreks East, which are within a few kilometres of each other on Bendigo and Ardgour stations.
It had halted trading in its shares earlier this week.
Santana would also spend about $4.3m extending its exploration programme into other parts of its permitted exploration and prospecting area between Bendigo and Ophir.
Santana chief executive Damian Spring said the company wanted to expand its current targets at its four main sites.
This would include more infill drilling.
He was bullish in the commitment to the project and believed he had the team to do the job.
"Look at the team, the board that we have assembled and the leadership team I have assembled.
"We know how to get a mine consented in New Zealand, obtain financing to construct that mine and then build that mine.
"We are building the capacity to build this mine all the way through into production," Mr Spring said.
The company was not talking to other mining companies.
It was looking to spend $5.4m on capital development such as water, land, power and roads, more than $2m on plant and equipment and $5.4m on working capital.
It also wanted to do more geophysical surveys in other areas along the 30km strike.
If those surveys generated targets, they would ultimately be followed up by some form of drilling to prove the discovery, he said
Asked to clarify whether Santana could include Department of Conservation (Doc) reserves in the expanded exploration, Mr Spring did not rule it out.
That was "for the future," and would take a long time and a lot of work to get to the point that Doc land was explored.
He confirmed Santana’s exploration permit covers Doc land but until permission to access it had been renewed, Santana was not exploring Doc land.
"We did have a minimum impact assessment access arrangement on Doc land, particularly on Bendigo Reef [a heritage area managed by Doc].
"That meant we could carry out mapping, in essence. There was no conventional drilling," he said.
The company also wants to raise $4m from eligible shareholders through a share purchase plan.
Santana’s chairman, Peter Cook, said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange the board was "extremely pleased with the strong demand for the placement".
It had been supported by "existing shareholders and new, highly credentialed domestic and international institutional investors, which is a testament to the outstanding quality of our Bendigo Ophir Gold Project," Mr Cook said.
The mine may be the largest gold discovery in New Zealand in 40 years, Sanata said earlier.
