The Artemis Resources Ltd (ASX: ARV) share price isn't doing much today. Artemis shares are stuck at 9.6 cents a share this afternoon. And that's where they are going to stay, at least for a while.
We received a market announcement this morning, just before the market open, on the matter. Artemis announced that its shares would remain in a trading halt until "the earlier of an announcement in relation to a capital raise or 12 May 2021".
Why? Here's what Artemis told investors:
- The trading halt is necessary as the company is undertaking a bookbuild in relation to the capital raising.
- The company wishes the trading halt to last until it announces the capital raising, or this Wednesday, whichever is the earlier.
There's no official confirmation of how the capital raise will operate or what Artemis will use the funds for. But a report in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) today cites sources that have floated a placement price of 10 cents a share for some institutional investors that operate in the small-cap resources space. It's worth pointing out that a price of 10 cents a share is above the price the company last closed at.
The report also states that the cash raised is earmarked to go towards the Carlow Castle project and Artemis' Paterson Central gold project in WA. If that proves the case, it would seem that Artemis plans to quickly build on its initial success at Carlow. However, we will have to wait for official confirmation from Artemis to be sure of these details.
About the Artemis Resources share price
An ASX gold and copper miner, Artemis has had a few months of relatively flat share price movements since it moved up more than 230% between June and August last year. In fact, the company is down roughly 20% year to date, and more than 12% in the past week. That's after the company rallied 14% late last month on the back of a quarterly production update, though.
This update informed the market that testing at the company's Carlow Castle resource area in Western Australia had yielded encouraging signs. Drilling at the site produced test results indicating gold concentrations of 4.36 grams per tonne of gold at a depth of 5 meters. The market was initially very excited about these results, but the sentiment seems to have cooled in the days since. It will be interesting to see how the market reacts when Artemis shares resume trading.
At the current (and frozen) share price, Artemis Resources has a market capitalisation of $104.17 million.
