The ESIA and Scoping Study are crucial for the permitting process for Bankan, and PDI is aiming to secure a mining permit in H1 2024.

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PDI secures firm commitments for $40m placement. (Credit: omid roshan on Unsplash)

Predictive Discovery Limited (ASX:PDI) (“PDI” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce it has received firm commitments from institutional and sophisticated investors for a A$40.4m placement of approximately 269.6m shares (“New Shares”) at an issue price of A$0.15 per New Share (“Placement”).

PDI Managing Director, Andrew Pardey, said:

“We are delighted by demand for the Placement, including a keen interest from Tier-1 institutional investors, which is testament to the quality and potential of the Bankan Gold Project, which we believe can become West Africa’s next Tier-1 gold mine.”

“We received strong support from our existing major shareholders, and we continue to enhance the breadth and quality of our share register, with new investors accounting for nearly 50% of the funds raised. PDI is building a deep shareholder base which can support the Company through Bankan’s development phase.”

“We continue on the pathway towards securing a mining permit in H1 2024, with funds from the Placement allocated towards the key workstreams of ongoing resource definition drilling at NEB and BC, and completion of the ESIA and Scoping Study by late 2023.”

“We are excited to be allocating up to A$20m of the Placement towards accelerating our regional drilling in a results-driven manner. Bankan has excellent regional potential, and recent exploration results and drill targeting at Argo highlight this. Pleasingly, RC drilling at Argo is on track to commence in the first week of June.”

PDI will issue a total of 269,640,533 New Shares at an issue price of A$0.15 per New Share, to raise a total of approximately A$40.4m (before costs). The Placement will be completed in a single tranche under the Company’s current placement capacity as per ASX Listing Rule 7.1.

The issue price of A$0.15 represented a modest 6.3% discount to the last traded price and a 5.5% discount to the 5-day volume-weighted average price.

The New Shares are expected to commence trading on the ASX on Tuesday 6 June 2023 and will rank equally with PDI’s existing fully paid ordinary shares.

Members of the Board of Directors have collectively provided commitments to subscribe to an additional

$150,000 in New Shares at the same price as the Placement, subject to shareholder approval at the next general meeting of the Company which is expected to be in July 2023.

SCP Resource Finance LP and Euroz Hartleys Limited are Joint Lead Managers and Bookrunners to the Placement, and Argonaut Securities Pty Ltd and Canaccord Genuity (Australia) Limited are Co-Managers.

Funds raised from the Placement will be used as follows:

·        Ongoing resource definition drilling to further expand and upgrade the existing 4.2Moz Mineral Resource2 at the Bankan Gold Project;

·        Acceleration of regional exploration drilling at multiple high priority targets along Bankan’s 35km structural gold corridor, commencing at the Argo prospects located along strike to the north of the NEB deposit;

·        Completion of the ESIA and Scoping Study; and

·        Expenses of the Placement, corporate costs and general working capital.

Over the past 12 months, PDI has completed approximately 86,000m of diamond (“DD”) and reverse circulation (“RC”) drilling at the NEB and BC deposits. A Mineral Resource estimate announced in February 2023 successfully upgraded 50% of NEB’s 3.5Moz Open Pit Mineral Resource to the Indicated category.2 Resource definition drilling is ongoing at the NEB and BC deposits, and PDI plans a further Mineral Resource update in Q3 2023. This updated Mineral Resource estimate will form the basis of the Scoping Study which is on track to be completed in late 2023.

The ESIA and Scoping Study are crucial for the permitting process for Bankan, and PDI is aiming to secure a mining permit in H1 2024.

The Bankan Gold Project has significant regional exploration potential, with a 35km gold structural corridor which represents the western margin of the Siguiri Basin situated within the permits. PDI has increased its focus on regional exploration over the last 6 months, completing extensive auger geochemistry drilling, geophysics surveys, geological mapping and ground-truthing.

Argo, which is located 15-20km north of NEB, is the current high priority focus area for regional exploration. PDI recently completed induced polarisation surveys and identified 11 drill-ready targets.3 On-site preparation of drill pads at Argo is underway and RC drilling is planned to commence in the first week of June 2023.

Source: Company Press Release