It's been a fairly lacklustre day for most ASX shares this Wednesday. At the close of trading, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) had clawed back some ground to end the day 0.14% higher.
But there were two ASX gold shares that sat out of trading this morning. Oh, and one of them clocked a 135% gain just before it was halted.
But first, let's talk about De Grey Mining Ltd (ASX: DEG). This ASX gold share last traded yesterday, and its share price is currently frozen at yesterday's close of $1.26.
Just before market open this morning, De Grey revealed it would conduct a capital raising program to finance its Hemi Gold Project.
De Grey will raise an estimated $600 million from this capital raise. Of that figure, approximately $343.9 million will be raised from an institutional share placement, with the remaining $256.1 million coming from an entitlement offer for existing shareholders.
De Grey plans to issue 545.5 million new shares to fund this program, which represents around 29.5% of the company's current share count. These new ASX gold shares will be issued at a price of $1.10 each.
It will be interesting to see what the market makes of these plans when De Grey shares eventually return to trading.
But let's get to the 135% share price spike.
How is this ASX gold share up 300%?
That's precisely what occurred with the shares of Iceni Gold Ltd (ASX: ICL) this morning. Iceni shares closed at 2.3 cents each yesterday but opened at 3.9 cents this morning before a trading halt took effect just before 11am. By that time, this ASX gold share was trading at 5.4 cents.
After the shares were halted, Iceni revealed that the company had struck gold… literally. Iceni has made a major discovery at the gold explorer's 14 Mile Well Project in Western Australia.
In a subsequent release, Iceni confirmed that fieldwork at the site had resulted in the discovery of "multiple spectacular gold-bearing quartz veinlets" within a small area. Iceno was able to produce a 9.5-ounce gold dore bar from just one sample at the site.
Here's some of what Iceni managing director Wade Johnson had to say on this development:
The shallow excavation and sampling activities at Christmas Gift [within the 14 Mile Well Project] exposing the rich gold-bearing quartz veinlets within the shear zone is an exciting development for the company.
The additional fieldwork has improved our knowledge of the host structure… but also provides a geological model that we can apply elsewhere in the Everleigh Well area.
The strike length of the structure is open, drill sites have been prepared and we are looking forward to commencing drilling shortly to evaluate the down dip extent of the structure and rapidly advance this priority target.
This afternoon, Iceni shares returned to trading, and investors haven't been mucking around. The company exploded to a high of 11 cents before retreating to 9.2 cents on the close of trade. That's still a whopping 300% higher than when it started the day
It's a pretty good day to be an Iceni shareholder.
