Indian gold minnow Kolar plans placing on AIM

 

Indian group Kolar Gold plans to raise £12m from institutional investors in London to enable it to start exploration.

The miner will this week announce its intention to join the junior Aim market later this month with a valuation of about £40m.

Kolar has a deal with exploration group Bangalore to develop a mine and will use to the cash raised to start its exploration drive.

The company is named after the Kolar Gold Belt in India's southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

One aims will be to acquire the Kolar Gold Fields, which were mined for 120 years until 2001, producing 25m ounces of gold.

Kolar is chaired by Harvinder Hungin, who began his career as an investment banker and later helped lead the buyout of British property group Chelsfield and some of its key projects.