SINGAPORE (Nov 25): In September, Indonesia-based gold mining company Wilton Resources announced plans to raise some $3.2 million by issuing 125 million new shares at 2.61 cents each. The investor is veteran fund manager Tan Chong Koay, who is coming in via two entities: 75 million shares to be subscribed by Pheim Asset Management Sdn Bhd and 50 million by Pheim Asset Management (Asia).
The placement price represents a discount of 10% to the counter’s volume-weighted average price of 2.9 cents, based on trades done on Sept 11, the last full market day prior to the signing of agreements.
In a bourse filing, Wilton Resources said it planned to use IDR30.2 billion ($2.9 million), or about 90%, of the placement proceeds to fund the final stages of a flotation and carbon-in-leach mineral processing facility located at the company’s Ciemas gold project in West Java, Indonesia. The remaining IDR3.36 billion would be used for general working capital purposes.
In line with the share placement, Wilton Resources executive chairman and president Wijaya Lawrence had reportedly entered into a share lending agreement with the company, which saw him agree to lend the shares needed in the placement at no financial benefit.
Wilton Resources has yet to commence production, so there is no revenue while costs are being incurred. For the three months ended Sept 30, the company reported that losses widened 8.4% y-o-y to IDR50.5 billion, from IDR46.6 billion a year ago. Its net asset value per share, as at Sept 30, was 0.24 cent, down from 0.44 cent in the previous quarter.
In its outlook statement, Wilton Resources says it is working on the completion of the installation of the processing equipment and components of a facility that has a planned capacity of 500 tonnes a day. Even before this facility is completed, the company has indicated plans to increase capacity to 1,500 tonnes a day to build a more efficient operation.
Wilton Resources says it is exploring “certain fund-raising exercises” to pay for the cost of building and installing the required equipment and facilities to support the production and processing of gold.
Shares in Wilton Resources traded at 2.5 cents on Nov 21, valuing the company at $64.04 million.
