Orbis issued 30.35 million shares at 33c per share to new and existing Australian and North American-based institutions, and sophisticated investors in a placement that was heavily oversubscribed.

The placement was jointly managed by Bell Potter Securities and Clarus Securities.

The issue price represented a 5.7% discount to Orbis’s closing price on Wednesday, prior to entering a trading halt.

The placement comprised 12.1% of the company’s issued capital.

Orbis already had cash of $5.4 million at the end of the December quarter, but would use its bigger bank balance to accelerate work on its projects in Burkina Faso after some encouraging results this month.

The company’s shares have spiked a number of times over the past three months due to high-grade gold results from its Natougou project.

Natougou has an inferred resource of 14 million tonnes at 3.5 grams per tonne gold for 1.6 million ounces, as well as a modest indicated component of 1.2Mt at 5.2gpt gold for 200,000oz.

Current infill drilling is aimed at upgrading the inferred resource to indicated.

Orbis will also be focusing on development studies, as well as extensions of the mineralisation.

The company will also use the funds to drill its Bantou project in Burkina Faso.

Orbis’s recent exploration success has attracted the attention of analysts, with Macquarie Securities this month initiating coverage with an outperform recommendation and a 43c price target.

RFC Ambrian has a buy recommendation for Orbis with a 70c price target.

Shares in Orbis were untraded at 35c this morning.