Celtic Resources Holdings has raised about $1 million (#1.04 million) through the placing of 6,086,775 new shares at a price of 11.25p sterling per share.

The proceeds will be used for the initial development work at the Nezhdaninskoye gold mine in Sakha Republic (the largest Republic in the Russian Federation), the development of the Tamdykol on-shore oil property in Kazakhstan, and for working capital.

Celtic has also announced that it has agreed terms for the acquisition of a further interest in a North Sea gas field. And it has agreed terms for the acquisition, subject to contract, and shareholder approval, of certain oil, gold and other mineral interests, in Kazakhstan.

One of the companies is Millennium whose main asset is an 80 per cent interest in exploration and production for the Tamdykol oil deposit in northwest Kazakhstan.