'It is intriguing they should do this now instead of simply...

'It is intriguing they should do this now instead of simply paying out the project loan from cash flow down the track. It is a positive sign of their confidence in the extra exploration, the deep mining expansion and the plant expansion. As someone else commented, it’s beginning to look like it’s being dressed up to sell to one of the global majors."

Think your logic is wrong , if they were confident of paying off a loan , from forward cashflows they would not be doing an equity raise, they would be......................... taking out a loan
A loan would not be dilutive to you , an equity raise is especially so if discounted to the VWAP , more like horrible rather than "intriguing" .