The number of significant deals — namely those valued at over $2 million — also decreased by nine to 66 in December.
Gold financings down
The back-to-back monthly decrease is largely reflected by gold juniors and intermediates raising less funds over that period.
In December, gold financings declined 28% to $375 million, despite an uptick in the number of transactions (144 versus 137 in November), S&P data showed. This is because of a fewer number of significant deals (from 36 to 29), which dragged down the December totals.
The largest and only big financing (over $50 million) was the A$220 million placement of ordinary shares by Spartan Resources for its Dalgaranga gold project in Western Australia. This was also the largest financing overall for the year.
Reduced funding for base and non-gold precious metals also contributed to the downtrend in financings.
Total…
