South Pacific Metals closes $20 million private placement of units
South Pacific Metals Corp. [SPMC-TSXV, 6J100-FSE] said Wednesday it has raised $20 million from a private placement of units, with proceeds earmarked for exploration activities and general corporate purposes.
South Pacific is an emerging gold-copper exploration company operating in the heart of Papua New Guinea’s proven gold and copper production corridors. It’s Osena project covers 738 square kilometres of strategic ground and is located southwest and adjacent to K92 Mining Inc.’s [KNT-TSX, KNTNF-OTCQB] tenements that host the Kainantu Gold Mine. Drilling underway on K92-style targets has returned hits that include 8.0 metres of grade 8.95 g/t gold, 0.10% copper and 16 g/t silver and 12.2 metres of grade 4.93 g/t gold, 0.50% copper, and 55 g/t silver.
South Pacific said it has closed the private placement of units, each of which consisted of one common share and one common share purchase warrant. The offering consisted of 23.1 million units priced at 83 cents per unit. This includes proceeds of the full exercise of options granted to the agents to purchase an additional 6.02 million units.
Each warrant entitles the holder to purchase one common share for $1.40 for 24 months after closure. However, the expiry date of the warrants can be accelerated if the closing price of the shares on the TSX Venture Exchange exceeds $1.80 for 20 or more consecutive trading days.
South Pacific shares were unchanged at 80 cents on Wednesday. The shares trade in a 52-week range of 98 cents and 30.5 cents.
South Pacific was in the news in December, 2024 when it announced the appointment of Alex Davidson to the company’s board of directors. Davidson is a former Executive Vice-President of Exploration and Corporate Development with Barrick Mining Corp. [ABX-TSX, B-NYSE].
With an expansive 3,100-square kilometre land package and four transformative gold-copper projects that are contiguous with major producer K92 Mining, PanAust Ltd. and neighbouring Barrick/Zijin, new leadership and in-country teams are focused on exploration to prioritize discovery across its portfolio projects, Anga, Osena, Kili Teke and May River.
Immediately flanking K92’s active drilling and gold producing operations to the northeast and southwest, South Pacific’s Anga and Osena projects are located within the high-grade Kainantu gold district, each having the potential to host similar-style lode-gold and porphyry-copper-gold mineralization that present within K92’s tenements.
Kili Teke is an advanced exploration project situated only 40 kilometres from the Porgera gold mine and hosts an existing inferred mineral resource of 237 million tonnes of grade 0.34% copper, 0.24 g/t gold and 168 ppm molybdenum, with multiple opportunities for expansion and further discovery. The May River project is located adjacent to the world-renowned Frieda River copper-gold project, with historical drilling indicating the potential for a significant, untapped gold mineralized system.