Aureus offers Toronto investors new play on Liberia

Fresh of its initial public offering Aureus Mining (AUE-T) has raised more cash to push ahead on a feasibility study at its flagship New Liberty project in western Liberia.

The London-based miner only began trading in Toronto in mid-April, but it seems to have grabbed the markets attention with its latest round of equity financing. In Toronto on May 13 the company was one of the largest gaining miners on the big board as it jumped 16% or 21¢ to finish at $1.51 on 299,217 shares traded.

The gain in market cap came after Aureus said it had secured $35.1 in gross proceeds thanks to a fully bought deal that was led by RBC Capital Markets and GMP Securities.

The capital will come by way of the issuance of 27 million common shares at a price of $1.30 and the offer is expected to close on May 19.

Armed with new cash Aureus will look to get a feasibility study done at New Liberty over the coming year. The project currently has 5.99 million tonnes grading 4.17 grams gold for 751,000 oz. in the indicated resource category and another 7.04 million tonnes grading 3.4 grams for 762,000 oz. of gold in the inferred category.

New Liberty, along with Ndablama, Weaju, Silver Hills and Gondoja lie within Aureus’s Bea Mountain property. The company has a 25 year renewable mineral development agreement on the 1,000 sq km of land.

Flush with cash and land, the company says it will do additional drilling elsewhere at Bea, while it also puts money into exploring its early stage properties in Cameroon.

Recent drill results form Ndablama demonstrated the prospectiveness of other parts of Bea by returning assays highlighted by 14 metres grading 2.86 grams gold and 10 metres grading 2.77 grams gold.

Aureus began exploring in western Liberia back in 1998. And while it was granted the 25 years development agreement in 2001, the civil war in the country between 2001 and 2003 all but shut down exploration work.

With the free elections in 2005, however, the company got back to work and its perseverance in the country was rewarded in 2010 when it was granted a class “A” mining licence for a production area of 457 sq. km – the area in which New Liberty sits.

New Liberty was discovered thanks to alluvial gold mining in the area, as the deposit was traced back upstream.