Comstock Mining offering common stock

VIRGINIA CITY — Comstock Mining, Inc., on Monday announced a public offering of 10,169,493 shares of common stock.

The gold and silver mining company, which has LODE as a stock symbol, said in a news release it was expected the offering of additional shares would occur today, subject to customary closing conditions, and gross proceeds should be in the neighborhood of $6 million.

“The company intends to use the net proceeds to accelerate the drilling and development of the Lucerne underground program, accelerate planning and prerequisites for the next phase of Dayton drilling, and development and general corporate purposes,” according to the release. Corrado De Gasperis, president and CEO, expanded on that.

“The successful launch of the Lucerne Portal, now already half way towards our phase one target of 800 feet, with two underground rigs operating, has enabled us to accelerate our efforts for developing these remarkable gold and silver recourses,” he said. “We couldn’t be more pleased with the broad shareholder support, ensuring a faster pace of drilling and development.”

The mining firm has set up a conference call for Thursday morning at 8 a.m. local time, or 11 a.m. Eastern Time, to report results and provide a business update. Comstock began acquiring property in the Comstock District in 2003 and continues to do so while mining what it already has.