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New Century Resources is reprocessing the 77 million tonne tailings resource at the Century mine. Image:

New Century has today launched a $51.1 million capital raising that will allow it to ramp up operations at the Century mine to 12 million tonnes a year.

IGO plans to collaborate with New Century on opportunities within the Century tenements, with the potential to form a joint venture agreement should an asset be deemed suitable.

New Century managing director Patrick Walta said the fully underwritten capital raising provided important working capital for Century, which was now an established top-10 global zinc mine and in the final stages of a ramp up to it nameplate capacity.

The company will issue its shares for 15 cents each, a 19 per cent premium to the five-day volume-weighted average price.

Perth-based IGO also has the right to appoint a member to the New Century board as long as its stake remains above 10 per cent.

IGO managing director Peter Bradford said the company looked forward to the potential collaboration with New Century on any future clean energy metals-focussed exploration or other business development initiatives.

In a bid to strengthen IGO’s nickel portfolio, the company last year lobbed a takeover bid at Panoramic Resources, which fell through due to a breach of conditions.

IGO, which has a market capitalisation of $2.92 billion, owns the Nova nickel-copper-cobalt operation and a 30 per cent interest in the Tropicana joint venture with AngloGold Ashanti, both in Western Australia.