The company, which has been delivering good assay numbers, has just announced a $29.3 million capital plan comprising a flow-through raising for $21.55 million at 20.44c, a 28% premium to the last closing price, and a $7.75 million placement at 14.5c, a 10% discount.
The new shares represent about 14% of the company.
The flow-through shares are being issued under a Canadian exploration tax incentive scheme, facilitated by flow-through share dealer and fund manager Peartree Securities.
Canaccord Genuity, Red Cloud Securities, Tectonic Advisory Partners and Tamesis Partners also aided in tapping investors across Australia, Europe and North America.
Kumova and corporate director Rob Jewson, who will subscribe for $250,000, will require shareholder approval to participate.
The cash will be used to fund resource drilling along the 1km strike at the emerging Bardwell nickel-cobalt discovery, and further drilling across the 6.5km-long Boomerang nickel-cobalt target, and at gold discoveries such as Edleston Main and Sirola, and other regional prospects.
Aston wants to have four diamond rigs in the field.
Kumova said that a recent site visit had indicated the sheer scale of nickel sulphides at Boomerang, while drilling at Bardwell has hit sulphide mineralisation in every hole to date, including a recent intercept of 293m at 0.32% nickel and 0.012% cobalt from 52m that ended in mineralisation.
The maiden drill hole into the Elbow prospect, 2.7km east of Bardwell, returned 221m at 0.28% nickel and 0.01% cobalt from 42m, with that hole also ending in mineralisation.
The first hole in Boomerang intersected 287m at 0.3% nickel and 0.012% cobalt from 38.7m, exceeding its pre-drill expectations. It compares Boomerang's geology to BHP's Mt Keith operations in Western Australia.
"Even though extensive exploration has been conducted by Aston in a relatively short period across both the nickel and gold prospects within the Edleston project, we are only really just scratching the surface in terms of the potential strike length to be tested," he said.
Maiden resources are anticipated for Edleston Main and Bardwell, plus a nickel exploration target, expected within six months.
The Edleston project is close to Kirkland Lake in Ontario, and sits along the prolific Abitibi greenstone belt.
Nickel was first defined below cover at Edleston in 2012, targeting of IP chargeability anomalies on the doorstep of the Sudbury nickel complex, but Aston is the first company to have drilled the area in a decade.
Past work was hampered by fragmented holdings and a singular focus on either nickel or gold exploration, not both.
The company was recapitalised from European Cobalt in April 2021.
The stock has traded as low as 3c prior to the Canadian move, to a peak of 23.5c over the past year, and was off 3% this morning at 15.5c, valuing it at around $150 million.
