Unfortunately for its long-suffering shareholders, the return has not been a good one for this ASX mining stock.

In morning trade, the Africa-focused iron ore exploration and development company's shares are down 47% to a record low of 9.8 cents.

Why is this ASX mining stock crashing?

This morning, the company's shares returned to trade after it completed a $23.4 million capital raising.

This comprises a placement, which raised approximately $13.2 million, and an entitlement offer, which raised approximately $10.2 million.

The ASX mining stock advised that both its placement and entitlement offer were strongly supported by Genmin's board, major shareholder Tembo Capital, and other sophisticated and institutional shareholders.

The company notes that it is now debt free and has received cash of approximately $13.2 million. This is after brokerage costs, repayment of the Tembo Capital loans, and other creditor offsets.

As a reminder, Genmin's original suspension was requested pending further clarification of political circumstances in Gabon.

The good news is that businesses are now operating normally in Gabon with ongoing stability and a proactive new government actively promoting and streamlining timeframes for new economic development.

What now?

Its full focus now shifts to finalising project build financing and then develop the Baniaka operation in Gabon, with commencement of commercial production targeted for mid-2025.

The ASX mining stock plans to develop Baniaka at an initial production rate of 5 million iron ore tonnes per annum (Mtpa). Procurement of project build financing is the next major milestone that needs to be achieved. Genmin is engaged in discussions with several potential financing partners, including two of its Chinese offtake counterparties.

'Delighted'

Genmin's managing director and CEO, Joe Ariti, was very pleased that the company's shares were finally returning to trade. He commented:

We are delighted our shares resumed trading on ASX today after a seven-month hiatus and also to have completed a $23.4 million fundraising. Today, we have the mining approvals needed to build and operate Baniaka, we have cleared all loan debt, and we have cash to support our operations whilst we concentrate on delivering the next major milestone of project financing to build Baniaka.

We deeply appreciate the patience of our existing shareholders whilst our shares were not trading, and welcome the new investors to Genmin and thank them, and our existing shareholders alike for their strong support in the fundraising. I also extend my thanks to Tembo Capital for providing working capital support when needed and my fellow board members and our team, who worked tirelessly to carefully navigate the external challenges we encountered during 2023.

The post Why is this ASX mining stock sinking 47% to a record low? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

In light of this, I thought I would scour through a range of recent notes to see which small cap ASX shares are in favour with brokers at present.

Three that have been given buy ratings are listed below. Here's why brokers like them:

Genmin Ltd (ASX: GEN)

According to a note out of Bell Potter, its analysts have initiated coverage on this iron ore exploration company's shares with a speculative buy rating and 44 cents price target. The broker has been looking over Genmin's pipeline of projects in Gabon, Africa. It believes there is the potential to support an iron ore production hub initially of 5-10Mtpa. Overall, the broker likes the company due to it offering exposure to future high margin iron ore production and the strategic theme of the development of ex-Australian iron ore supply. The Genmin share price is fetching 19.5 cents on Thursday.

Micro-X Ltd (ASX: MX1)

A note out of Morgans reveals that its analysts have retained their speculative add rating and 58 cents price target on this x-ray technology company's shares. Morgans notes that the company has signed a number of key contracts this month. This includes with the US Department of Homeland Security and Australian Stroke Alliance. The latter is worth $8 million to the company and is for the development of lightweight stroke diagnostic imaging technology. The Micro-X share price is trading at 33 cents today.

Readytech Holdings Ltd (ASX: RDY)

Analysts at Macquarie have retained their outperform rating and lifted their price target on this mission critical software company's shares to $3.98. This follows news that the company has signed an agreement to acquire Avaxa for $2.2 million. Avaxa is a specialist enterprise student management software company. Macquarie expects it to support ReadyTech's JobReady Plus platform. The Readytech share price is trading at $3.49 today.

The post Top brokers name 3 ASX small cap shares to buy appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.