Africa-focused gold miner Gryphon Minerals Ltd (ASX: GRY) said on Friday that it raised capital of up to $45.2 million through share placement, adding that an additional $3 million would be raised via share purchase plan for total fund of $48.2 million to be utilised for fast-tracking its gold projects in West Africa.

Both capital raising activities, according to Gryphon Minerals, would issue shares at $1.25 per share with the share placement distributions totalling to 36.1 million new shares.

Gryphon managing director Steve Parsons said that proceeds of the capital raising would be fully allocated for the expeditious exploration and development of its Banfora gold project in Burkina Faso and to commence exploration on Gryphon's Tijirit gold mining site in Mauritania.

Mr Parsons stressed that "these funds allow us to accelerate our exploration programme in two highly prospective and under-explored regions of West Africa."

Following the capital raising, Mr Parsons said that Gryphon's land holdings jumped to a dominant and strategic level of more than 3600 square kilometres, combining both Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

He said that the company's concentration is currently trained in advancing the Banfora gold project in Burkina Faso, which Gryphon believed is laced with tremendous potential to end up as a rich source of gold harvests with proper use of an aggressive drilling programme.

Mr Parsons also called into attention the company's gold exploration activities at Tijirit, which he described as "one of the most significant gold discoveries of recent times, and where we already have a number of drill-ready targets identified."

As of 1242 AEST on Friday, Gryphon Minerals shares were trading at $1.555 per share, gaining at least 10.5 cents in value as compared to its level from previous trading sessions.