Navan Mining placed 3.1 million new shares on the market yesterday. It wants to raise £2.42 million (€3.07 million) for a major drilling project in eastern Europe. Proceeds from the placed shares, valued at 78p each, will go towards financing the company's recently discovered gold deposits at Krumovgrad in Bulgaria.

Early tests indicated the site could become a significant gold mine, and company officials said they needed a quick infusion of capital to evaluate and develop the site.