The company raised C$7 million (A$8.1 million) via Canada's flow-through shares scheme, with shares priced at A42.75c, a 67.7% premium.

Cygnus also raised a further $3 million via a traditional placement at 22.5c per share, an 11.8% discount.

Canaccord Genuity and Euroz Hartleys were joint lead managers with Shaw and Partners as co-managers.

The company will seek an additional $2 million via a share purchase plan at the same price as the placement.

Cygnus will have about $15.9 million cash following the raisings, which will fund upcoming drilling programs at its Pontax project in Quebec's James Bay lithium district.

Last week, Cygnus reported a maiden resource of 10.1 million tonnes at 1.04% lithium oxide for Pontax.

"We have only scratched the surface of the huge potential at our Pontax project," Cygnus managing director David Southam said.

"We believe the recent maiden resource is just the start of ongoing growth of Pontax."

Summer drilling is underway with a larger program scheduled for winter. The company expects to drill 17,000m between now and the end of the winter drilling season in Canada.

Drilling is underway at the Auclair lithium project, while early stage work is underway at the Sakami lithium project, both also in James Bay.

Canaccord head of research Reg Spencer noted last week that Auclair was only 60km east of Livent's 55Mt Whabouchi lithium project and had a good chance of being a discovery.

"In our view, positive results could be a major share price catalyst," he said.

Canaccord has a speculative buy rating and 60c price target for Cygnus.

Shares in Cygnus fell 5.7% but remained above the raising price at 24.5c.