Cygnus Metals, a diversified critical minerals development company, has secured commitments to raise A$18.3m ($11.8m) through a share placement.

The funds will be used to develop the Chibougamau copper-gold project in Canada. It will support exploration, resource growth and studies to advance the project's development.

The funds will also provide general working capital and cover costs associated with the placement.

The placement will proceed in two tranches, with the first tranche of 211.6 million shares raising A$18.2m and the second tranche, subject to shareholder approval, potentially adding A$100,000 through the issuance of 1.16 million shares to non-executive director Raymond Shorrocks or his nominees.

The first tranche is expected to settle on 26 June 2025 and does not require shareholder approval.

Cygnus Metals' recent drilling success at the Corner Bay deposit and the discovery of high-grade gold and copper at the new Golden Eye prospect within the Chibougamau copper-gold project in Quebec have set the stage for a resource update in the next quarter.

Cygnus managing director David Southam said: “We have been generating outstanding results at Chibougamau and the proceeds of this raising will enable us to unlock the value much faster."

The company's pro-forma cash balance is forecasted to be approximately A$23.7m before placement costs, as of 30 June 2025.

Southam added: “There is clearly immense scope to grow and upgrade the project’s resource on the back of Corner Bay and Golden Eye. Given this potential, we want to move as quickly as possible on the exploration front and advance our study work at the same time.

“This comes against a backdrop of increased M&A [mergers and acquisitions] activity in the copper space, which demonstrates that finding high-grade copper/gold projects with infrastructure in mining friendly jurisdictions are rare – we just happen to have one of the best.”

In January, Cygnus Metals and Doré Copper Mining completed their merger, creating a dual-listed critical minerals company with two core assets – Doré’s Chibougamau copper-gold project and Cygnus’ James Bay lithium projects in Quebec.