The raising will issue new shares at 32c each, an 8% discount to the stock’s trading price in Canada this week.

West African Resources’ shares have been in strong demand from investors for the past couple of months, with the stock up about 65% since May 1.

The junior announced earlier this month its plan to focus on resource and extensional drilling at its Sanbrado gold project in Burkina Faso for the remainder of 2017, ahead of revisiting development scenarios in the first half of 2018.

The catalyst for delaying development has been the strong exploration success at depth at the high grade M1 South deposit, including a best drill hit for the year of 21m grading 53.13 grams per tonne from 408m reported earlier this month.

The raising comes with six drill rigs on site drilling around the clock, and with the company already having A$14 million cash bank and over $7.5 million ‘in-the-money’ options.

Shares in West African Resources closed Thursday at 36.5c, capitalising the company at $176 million.