The company signed an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters co-led by Clarus Securities, Dundee Securities and CIBC World Markets in which the underwriters will buy 25 million shares from Perseus on a bought-deal basis and sell them to the public at $3.25 per share, an 8.2% discount to its Tuesday closing price of $3.52 in Toronto.

The gross proceeds of the raising will be $81.25 million but the underwriters also have an overallotment option to buy a further 3.75 million shares to take the gross proceeds to $93.4 million.

Perseus expects the offer to close by November 2.

The dual-listed company will use the funds for project development and general working capital purposes.

In August, Perseus poured the first gold from its $US175 million Edikan gold mine in Ghana.

Last week the company said the plant was performing to expectation during the commissioning phase, producing 8960 ounces in September.

The mine is set to produce 200,000oz gold in its first 12 months of commercial production, increasing to 280,000oz the following year.

Last month Perseus outlined an aggressive strategy to reach annual production of 450,000oz by 2014 and will spend $A35 million on exploration this year.

Perseus shares fell 8.2% to $C3.23 in Toronto overnight and were last trading 5% down to $A3.28 in Australia after earlier hitting an intraday low of $3.17.