Irish mineral exploration company Navan Mining today said it plans to raise £16.3 million sterling through new shares to fund further exploration at the gold discovery at Krumovgrad, Bulgaria.
The firm also intends to install a gold plant at Almagrera in Spain and to reduce the level of short-term debt in the group.
In a statement today the company said Krumovgrad has shown an initial gold deposit of 3.1 million ounces.
The company said it will use £5 million of the new funding for further exploration and evaluation of the Krumovgrad deposits. It said it plans to complete a feasibility study on the Krumovgrad permit area by the end of 2002.
A further £2 million is planned to provide the equity component of the capital cost of a new gold plant to be built at Navan Mining's processing operations at Almagrera in Spain.
The remaining £9.3 million will be used to reduce debt incurred to finance the mine and mill developments in Spain and Bulgaria over the last 18 to 24 months, the company said.