Newcrest chairman, Peter Hay, said the capital raising made sure that the company’s balance sheet remained strong.

The company initially intended to raise $100 million, but decided to increase this to $200 million due to strong support from shareholders.

Under this plan, Newcrest will issue 7.8 million new shares for $25.60 a share.

“These funds, together with the $1 billion raised in the recent institutional placement and our free cash flow generation, ensures Newcrest’s balance sheet remains strong and positions us well to fund our future growth options,” Hay said.

Newcrest had stated it would use the proceeds to purchase Lundin Gold’s Fruta del Notre financing facilities, which include gold prepay, stream facilities and an offtake agreement, valued at $US460 million ($701.6 million).

The purchase was finalised on April 30 and was expected to increase Newcrest’s exposure to Fruta del Norte mine’s production in Ecuador from approximately 32 per cent as of April.

Newcrest managing director Sandeep Biswas had anticipated the acquisition to generate an exposure to approximately 400,000 ounces of gold between 2020 and 2026.

Lundin’s offtake agreement also allows Newcrest to acquire 50 per cent of refined gold production, up to 2.5 million ounces, from Fruta del Norte.

Additionally, Newcrest intended to use the freshly raised fund towards construction of declines at the Havieron gold-copper project in Western Australia – where the company has 40 per cent interest – and developments at the Red Chris mine in Vancouver, Canada – where it has 70 per cent interest.