Anvil raises $296 million for Congo projects

Anvil Mining (AVM-T, AVM-A) has announced a private placement for more than $296 million with Catala Global, making it a major Anvil shareholder.

Global Catala is owned by a trust for the family of Israeli diamond trader, Dan Gertler.

Global Catala will acquire almost 24 million shares at $12.50 each; about 25% of Anvil shares. The company will be able to nominate one person to Anvil’s board of directors.

The money will help fund several development projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Anvil says it will use part of the funds to proceed to stage two of its Kinsevere copper project. In June 2007 the company began production with a heavy media separation plant.

Now Anvil plans to incorporate a solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW) processing plant to produce 60,000 tonnes a year of pure cathode copper. Construction, which is estimated to cost $380 million in total.

Some of the funds will be allocated to the Kulu SX-EW project. Right now, Kulu is a tailings retreatment operation based on coarse reject material from an old mine. The company produced more than 10,000 tonnes of copper in 2007 at Kulu.

Anvil shares were up 22% in Toronto today, or $1.97, to a $10.90 apiece on a trading volume of 2 million shares.