Metals producer Timminco Ltd. said recently it will raise $26 million in a bought-deal financing to fund the expansion of its high-purity silicon facility at subsidiary Becancour Silicon Inc.

The financing comes after a week in which the miner's stock has been red hot – Timminco shares have nearly quadrupled in value over their closing price a week ago after the company announced an agreement to sell high-purity silicon to a solar-cell manufacturer.

In fact, the company increased the size of its offering hours after announcing it yesterday. Originally, the company planned to issue 7.9 million common shares at $2.60 each for gross proceeds of $20.5 million.

Later, the number of shares was increased by 2.1 million to a total of 10 million shares, not counting overallotment options. If all overallotment options are exercised, the total would increase to gross proceeds of $29.9 million.

Timminco said last Wednesday that subsidiary Becancour Silicon Inc. will sell a minimum of 1,500 tonnes over the initial term of five years and up to 5,000 tonnes. The deal represents Becancour's second commercial contract for high-purity silicon.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Becancour, whose major operations are in Quebec, has the capacity to produce 300 tonnes of high- purity silicon a year.

Before the financing, the company had about 75 million shares outstanding.

Timminco is a major producer of alloy magnesium, silicon metal and specialty ferrosilicon, calcium and strontium alloys. The company's products are used in specialized industrial applications and industries such as engineered extruded products, and chemical, pharmaceutical, electronics, automotive and metallurgical products.

Timminco shares, which have been at multi-year highs in recent days, closed at $2.85 yesterday, down 9 cents or about three per cent, in trading of 3.95 million shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange.