Australia's Predictive Discovery raises $55 mln for Guinea gold mine

Predictive Discovery

29/05/2022 23:00

JOHANNESBURG, May 30 (Reuters) - Australian exploration firm
Predictive Discovery  PDI.AX  has agreed $55 million in funding
from institutional investors through a share placement to
develop its Bankan gold project in Guinea, it said on Monday.
    Predictive Discovery will use the cash to complete baseline
environmental studies and continue drilling with an aim of
increasing Bankan's inferred resource of 3.65 million ounces of
gold. 
    The Bankan project is in the outer buffer zone of the Upper
Niger National Park, and Predictive Discovery will have to carve
it out from the buffer zone, something it is discussing with
Guinean authorities, managing director Andrew Pardey said.
    Predictive Discovery plans to fund conservation activities
in the national park, a habitat for critically endangered
Western chimpanzees, to partly mitigate the impact of the mine. 
    Pardey said the fundraising - the biggest for an
Africa-focused gold exploration firm this year - was "heavily"
oversubscribed. The shares will be issued at 0.18 Australian
dollars ($0.1289), a 10% discount to the last traded price. 
    The first tranche of the placement is scheduled to end on
June 6, while the second will be issued subject to approval from
shareholders at a meeting planned for early July. 
    Predictive also aims to raise a further $5 million from
retail investors through a share purchase plan.
    Predictive expects to bring Bankan into production in 2025,
Pardey said, and is now fully focused on Guinea, having
previously explored in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. 
    The company plans to sell its Burkina Faso exploration
permits or simply let them expire, Pardey said. The permits are
in the country's north, a dangerous region where jihadist groups
with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State have gained ground.
    "I'm not prepared to go there and I'm not prepared to send
anyone else there," Pardey said. Predictive is also being
diluted out of its joint ventures in Ivory Coast, he said.
    ($1 = 1.3966 Australian dollars)

 (Reporting by Helen Reid
Editing by Mark Potter)
 ((Helen.Reid@thomsonreuters.com; +27 66 156 5214;))