Aim-listed Greatland Gold on Wednesday announced the successful placing of $325-million to fund the acquisition of the Havieron and Telfer assets, in Australia, from US major Newmont.

Greatland placed 5.18-million new shares at 4.8p each, for for a total oversubscribed placing of about £248.6-million ($325-million).

“We are delighted to have successfully closed the placing, which was strongly supported and oversubscribed. The placing proceeds will fully fund the cash consideration for the acquisition of 100% ownership of Havieron and Telfer, to make Greatland a material producer of gold and copper,” said Greatland MD Shaun Day.

As the discoverer of Havieron and an existing joint venture (JV) owner, Greatland's team has an unrivalled knowledge of the project. Consolidation of 100% ownership of Havieron and the acquisition of Telfer provides Greatland the opportunity to control the integration and optimisation of the combined assets, with the objective of creating a generational Australian gold-copper mining complex.

Under the terms of the acquisition – announced on Tuesday – the company has agreed to acquire the assets for a total consideration and debt repayment of up to $475-million.

The proceeds of the placing would be used to finance the $155.1-million cash component of the acquisition consideration, repayment of the $52.4-million outstanding Havieron joint venture loan to Newmont, repayment of the outstanding balance of about A$7.1-million under an existing working capital facility, the stamp duty payable by the company on the acquisition, the payment of transaction costs and expenses in connection with the acquisition and the placing, and working capital requirements.

The transaction marks Newmont's first asset sales under its noncore asset divestiture plan announced in February.  Besides Telfer and its stake in Havieron, Newmont has placed another five mines and one project on the chopping block. These mines include Éléonore, Musselwhite and Porcupine, in Canada, CC&V, in the US and Akyem, in Ghana, as well as the Coffee project, in Canada.