Trek Metals plans to raise AU$15 million to fund a major upcoming drilling campaign at the Kuro manganese discovery within the Christmas Creek gold project in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
The company will issue 90.33 million shares at 15 cents each, raising AU$13.55 million in the first tranche. The second tranche will comprise the issue of 9.67 million shares , subject to shareholder approval.
The funds raised will be used to accelerate the company’s manganese exploration activities at the Kuro prospect and for general working capital purposes.
Trek Metals CEO Derek Marshall says the placement will put the company on “very strong footing” ahead of drilling programmes at the Kuro prospect, which will begin in April.
“With a significantly strengthened balance sheet, Trek will be able to launch a multi-rig drilling program that will run for much of the year, enabling us to fully evaluate the exciting high-grade manganese discovery we made late last year and advance it rapidly towards a maiden mineral resource,” the CEO said.
“Importantly, the funds we have secured will also allow us to undertake parallel work streams, such as metallurgical test work on the manganese mineralisation and to continue to advance gold exploration across the multiple promising prospects we identified at Christmas Creek last year.”
The company’s upcoming exploration activities include heritage surveys and engagement across multiple target areas at Christmas Creek, as well as refined manganese drill targeting.
Trek Metals will also pursue ongoing gold, base metals and rare earth exploration within the Christmas Creek area.
The Christmas Creek project represents a previously unexplored, largely concealed (under shallow sand cover) district-scale gold and rare earths exploration opportunity. The project covers a total area of 1,183 square kilometres.