Meteoric Resources tops up with $7m placement to accelerate Juruena and Novo Astro gold projects

Meteoric Resources (ASX: MEI) will have an extra $7 million in cash to fast-track exploration at its Juruena and Novo Astro gold projects in Brazil after receiving firm commitments for a placement.

The company has received firm commitments from existing shareholders and institutional investors for a placement of 140 million shares at $0.05 each.

This represents a 12% discount to Meteoric’s last traded price of $0.056 and the placement is expected to be undertaken in two tranches.

Pending shareholder approval, Meteoric managing director Dr Andrew Tunks will participate in the placement by subscribing for $20,000-worth of shares, while non-executive director Shastri Ramnath will also join in by scooping up $15,000 of Meteoric shares.

Dr Tunks said the support Meteoric has received from shareholders is a “true testament” to Juruena and Novo Astro’s “sheer prospectivity”.

“As a board, we are delighted with how our initial exploration of both projects has progressed since acquisition in March of this year and this $7 million placement, which follows the $2.7 million in August, puts us in good stead to accelerate exploration at both our key projects.”

Juruena

A 26-hole 4,500m drilling program at Juruena is due to be finished next month.

Dr Tunks said the company will evaluate the program’s results and plan for the next campaign.

“It is anticipated that new drilling will focus on expanding the known mineralisation at depth at Dona Maria and along strike at Tomate.”

“Additionally, we will look at several other under drilled targets and the largely unexplored Arrasto Hills to the north-west where the strongly altered volcanics demand further investigation,” he added.

To-date, drilling at Juruena has exceeded Meteoric’s expectations with the company reporting a 20.6m intersection grading 94.9g/t gold from Dona Maria, including 3.65m interval grading 508.4g/t gold.

Novo Astro

At the nearby greenfield Novo Astro project, Meteoric has uncovered visible gold during the asset’s first ever drilling program.

The maiden campaign will total 21-holes for 2,500m with first assays anticipated later this month.

Dr Tunks said the placement funds will be used to increase the drilling program at the project including “sharply targeted diamond drilling” and broader regional reverse circulation and aircore drilling to define the extent of the mineralised zones.