Wedgetail issued about 79.5 million shares at 22c each to undisclosed professional and sophisticated investors, with LinQ Corporate and Shaw Corporate Finance acting as brokers for the placement.

LinQ Resources fund has elected to contribute to the placement to maintain its 23% stake in the company.

Wedgetail chief executive Peter Woodman told MiningNews.net the equity raising was “good in a tough market” and the company was in advanced negotiations with a couple of banks regarding debt financing.

“We started road showing from Diggers and Dealers onwards and I think once people got the understanding that we’re not just five year base case plan and we’ve got significant high grade upside that made all the difference for Wedgetail,” he said.

Woodman said the company would look to secure circa $40 million in debt finance to allow for continuing exploration in conjunction with the construction of the project.

“Hopefully we’ll start construction next month and be pouring gold at least this time next year,” Woodman said. “What we want to do through the construction year is aggressively explore the 10km high grade corridor that we’ve uncovered out to the east of Golden Gate.”

“Once we're producing that would allow us to run the mill at a slightly higher head grade, and that could lift our base case 70,000 ounces per year closer to 100,000 ounces per year.”

The Nullagine project is expected to cost in the order of $43 million to get off the ground and is pegged to produce about 70,000 ounce per annum over an initial five year period. Cash costs are estimated at $A539 per ounce.

Shares in Wedgetail remained unchanged during morning trade at 25.5c, capitalising the company at $33 million.