Brazil-based gold miner Crusader Resources (ASX: CAS) wants to get back in the ASX’s good books.

The company was suspended from trading on the local bourse on October 1 last year, in accordance with listing rule 17.3.

Rule 17.3 gives the ASX authority to suspend a company from trading for a number of reasons, including if it is “unable or unwilling to comply with, or breaks, a listing rule” or “to prevent a disorderly or uninformed market”.

Having now spent more than four months on the sidelines, Crusader says it’s getting into shape.

It’s reducing its administrative burden, slashing costs on directors fees, and launching a capital raise as it refocuses on bringing its Borborema gold mine to production.

For now, the company remains languishing in the shadows with its share price frozen at 2 cents per share.

Raising some cash

In late February, the company flagged that it wants to raise $4.2m in a rights issue. $3.5m of that amount is already underwritten, due largely to a $2.5m placement to a company related to Crusader chairman Stephen Copulos.

“The company is currently completing the documentation and plans to make the full details of this financing available to the market by next week,” Crusader said.

Entities related to Copulos were also involved in the extension of an emergency line of credit in January this year, in order for the company to meet its working capital obligations and remaining as a going concern.

And saving some cash

In order to prove its worthiness to the ASX, Crusader also outlined a series of cost-cutting measures.

The company said it will delist from the secondary AIM market in the UK, which will save around $300k a year in administrative fees.

It’s also taking a swathe to annual fees paid to directors, which will fall from above $1m to around $170k

In addition, “exploration expenditure will be reduced and the sale of non-core assets will realise additional cash”, the company said.

Focus on the gold stash

Despite its ongoing struggles, Crusader’s latest game plan indicates the company still believes it can move its Borborema gold project to the production phase.

Crusader plans to establish an open-pit mine at the site with a 10-year useful life. It estimates the deposit “contains an estimated 2.43 million ounces gold at an average grade of 1.1 grams per ton”.

The company has commissioned a third party to undertake a Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) by the third quarter of this year.

“Submission of the BFS for project financing is expected to commence in the following quarter with plant/mine construction in 2020,” Crusader said.