Aurum Resources ramps up West African gold hunt with oversubscribed $7m share placement

Aurum Resources (ASX: AUE) has come out of a trading halt to reveal it has raised $7 million through an oversubscribed share placement.

The funds from the capital raising will be funnelled into Aurum’s rapidly-developing plans in the West African nation of Côte d’Ivoire, where it has recently achieved early exploration success at the newly-acquired Boundiali gold project.

Ashanti Capital and Xcel Capital are acting as the joint lead managers to the placement.

The two-tranche share placement received strong support from institutional and sophisticated investors, as well as newly appointed managing director Dr Caigen Wang and fellow directors Mark Strizek and Troy Flannery, who have collectively subscribed for $348,000 worth of placement shares.

Dr Wang, who has brought a successful track record in generating returns for shareholders to this new role and is particularly well known for his “discovery-to-mine” success as a founder of Tietto Minerals (ASX: TIE) in 2010, welcomed the strong backing the capital raising received.

“We thank new and existing shareholders for their support in this placement which will enable Aurum to accelerate its exploration plans, primarily at the exciting Boundiali Gold Project in Côte d’Ivoire,” he said.

Accelerated drilling program

“We are accelerating drilling on the project, located on the same greenstone belt as the 11 million ounce Syama, 5Moz Tongon and 4.5Moz Koné gold deposits, where we’ve already identified seven targets at the BM prospect and have commenced a 50-hole program at the BD prospect, which sits on a 13km gold corridor.”

“Using our own drill rigs, we aim to maximise shareholder value by driving our exploration dollar further as we work to uncover the potential of these prospects.”

After wrapping up the acquisition of Boundiali’s former owner and Côte d’Ivoire mining specialist PlusOr Global in mid-December, Aurum has wasted no time in hitting the ground at the gold project.

Boundiali showing early promise

The company recently received promising early results from its maiden Boundiali drilling program utilising two man-portable hydraulic diamond drilling (DD) rigs and consumables that were part of the PlusOr deal.

Assay results from the first eight holes in its inaugural 31-hole DD campaign at Boundiali’s BM tenement provided evidence of wide gold mineralisation at multiple gold targets from shallow oxidised material at surface as well as into fresh rock.

The 4,876.9m scout drilling campaign was drilled under extensive artisanal workings.

Highlight results were 16m at 1.24 grams per tonne gold from 117m, including 6m at 2.44g/t gold from 127m and 16.3m at 1.02g/t gold from 86.7m, including 8.0m at 1.71g/t gold from 95m.

Gold mineralisation remains open at these prospects and planning for further drilling required to test the known limits on the targets is underway.

The two Aurum-owned DD rigs are now scheduled to drill continuously at a planned rate of 2,600m per month during 2024.