The Vancouver-based miner issued about six million common shares at a price of 50c per share to raise gross proceeds of $3 million.

The gross proceeds of the offering will be used for exploration expenses in connection with the Carbon Creek metallurgical coal project in northeastern British Columbia.

In November, Cardero filed a prefeasibility study reflecting a significant increase in Carbon Creek’s measured and indicated resources.

The report from confirmed the deposit’s M&I resource at 468 million tonnes, up from 166Mt.

Carbon Creek’s established initial proven and probable reserves are 121Mt, pointing to an initial mine life of 20 years.

The report also found that, based on the results, the average clean coal production rate could be estimated at 4.1Mt per annum, up notably from a prior projection of 2.9Mtpa between 2016 and 2034.

Over Carbon Creek’s lifetime, coal production is expected to be about 78.4Mt, with 60% of planned output classified as hard coking coal.