River Diamonds Raises £8.5 Mln

River Diamonds, a UK-based mining and exploration firm with gold and diamond projects in Fiji, Sierra Leone and Brazil, has announced that it recently raised a total of £8.5 million ($16.65 million) through two share issues.

The company announced on June 5 that it had raised gross proceeds of £5.537 million ($10.844 million) though the issue of 130,294,118 ordinary shares at a placing price of 4.25p per share representing approximately 7.1 percent of the enlarged issued share capital.

River Diamonds made an additional announcement on June 9, saying that it had raised £3 million ($5.875 million) more, through the issue of 70.588.235 ordinary shares at 4.25p per share, representing approximately 3.7 percent of the enlarged issued share capital.

The firm’s total number of ordinary shares in issue following these actions is 1,902,371,072.

The funds, notes River Diamonds, will be used primarily for an expanded exploration program at its wholly owned Vatukoula gold mine in Fiji.

David Lenigas, executive director of River Diamonds, commented, "We are delighted to have successfully concluded these fundraisings which underline investors' conviction in the Vatukoula project. The Vatukoula gold mine has a long and impressive production history yet exploration has been significantly under-funded over the past decade.”