Funds on the Horizon for Black Swan Processing Hub

Mining.com.au

Written by Maddison Elliott

Horizon Minerals (ASX:HRZ) is raising $175 million through a two-tranche placement to fund the development of the Black Swan Processing Hub (BSPH), near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

The company will issue 50.89 million shares in tranche one, along with 111.14 million shares in tranche two, at an offer price of $1.08 per share. The offer price represents a 12.6% discount to the last closing price and a 14.4% discount to the five-day volume weighted average price.

Petra Capital is acting as the sole lead manager, bookrunner, and underwriter for this placement, with Euroz Hartleys acting as co-manager.

Tranche one is expected to settle on 24 February 2026, with the following tranche to settle on or around 13 April.

Horizon is also running a share purchase plan to raise an additional $10 million.

The capital raise follows the outcome of Horizon’s Black Swan Scoping Study for the plant and mine planning, which revealed a total pre-production capital expenditure of $160.5 million.

Pre-production costs include the estimated plant refurbishment and conversion costs for $101 million, site establishment and infrastructure refurbishment costs for $45.6 million, and mine development costs for $13.8 million.

Horizon has outlined a nominal processing rate of 2.2 million tonnes per annum for the plant with an initial mine life of five years.

Black Swan is predicted to hit a total production of 10.9 million tonnes @ 1.65 grams per tonne gold for 536,000 ounces recovered.

The first ore is expected to be processed in mid-2027 and will reach an annual gold production of around 102,000 ounces.

CEO Grant Haywood says the study has highlighted Horizon’s asset quality and shows a “robust economic case” to support the company’s vision of becoming a gold producer.

“It’s the culmination of building our strong gold portfolio with some key strategic acquisitions over the last 18 months, with the hard work and dedication of our talented team delivering an outstanding result,” Haywood says.

“Our initial plans of achieving a throughput of 1.5 million tonnes per annum through the Black Swan processing facility with a minimum five-year life of mine plan have well and truly been met with the plant study having now being upscaled to its nameplate capacity of 2.2 million tonnes per annum, whilst remaining at a five-year mine life and achieving our aspirational target of production of 100,000 ounces per annum.”

Horizon has revealed a greater gold ore reserve estimate across its projects near Kalgoorlie-Boulder to be at 4.3 million tonnes @ 1.54g/t for 214,000 ounces, increasing the global ore reserve by 160% to 131,615 ounces in contained gold.

“Our updated ore reserve estimate underpins a reliable source of mill feed for our BSPH Project which marks an important step forward in strengthening the long-term future for the operation,” Haywood adds.

“The improved confidence in our reserve base reflects the quality of the orebodies, the success of our technical team, and our commitment to disciplined resource conversion.

“With this reserve update, and Scoping Study, we are well positioned to deliver consistent production and meet our aspirational target of 100,000 ounces of gold production per annum.”

Trading Economics reports the price of gold at US$4,877 per ounce as of 17 February, representing a 66.54% increase for this year over year.

Horizon Minerals is an emerging mid-tier gold producer focused on projects in the west Australian goldfields.

The company is presenting at the RIU Explorers Conference in Fremantle, Western Australia being held from 17-19 February. Mining.com.au is an official media partner of this year’s event.

As reported by Mining.com.au, Horizon is targeting to advance investor awareness of its ongoing operations in Western Australia at RIU, during its presentation at 2.15pm AWST on the second day of the event.

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