Some 80 million fully paid ordinary shares were placed at 41c, an 8.9% discount to the volume-weighted average for the five days to October 10.

Aspire’s major shareholder, SouthGobi Resources, now has a 19.9% shareholding in the company and will take 14.2 million new shares under the placement.

Aspire managing director David Paull said he was very pleased with the show of support for the placement.

“We have been able to bring on board investors who are interested in our long term growth aspirations and the strong demand for the placement demonstrates market support for the Ovoot coking coal project,” he said.

Paull said the funds raised would enable the company to complete a pre-feasibility study on the Ovoot project and facilitate an aggressive exploration program.

On top of this, Aspire also plans to complete infill drilling at the tenement and apply for a Mongolian mining licence.

To date, Aspire has had a successful drilling program at the Ovoot project, only recently discovering a new coal seam only four kilometres away from the existing Ovoot resources.

The company expects to provide a resource update on the project in March 2012.