The Vancouver-based company issued 27 million of its common shares at $C17 each on both the Toronto and Hong Kong exchanges.

SouthGobi will use the funds raised to expand its coal mining and exploration in southern Mongolia.

The company plans to develop an underground operation at the Ovoot Tolgoi mine, which began open cut operations in 2008.

Ovoot Tolgoi hosts 135.9 million tonnes of measured surface resources and 181.7Mt of underground measured resources at depths of 250-600m.

The coal present includes export-quality thermal coal, metallurgical blending coal and semi-soft coking coal.