Welcome to a roundup of some of our financing, exploration, and development stories on Theassay.com over the last week. To keep up to date with all the latest headlines, subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Financing and M&A
This week, Denarius Metals Corp. (TSXV: DSLV | OTCQX: DNRSF) has entered into a definitive agreement with the shareholders of Rio Narcea Recursos, S.L. (RNR) to acquire a 50% interest, which has the rights to exploit the historic producing Aguablanca nickel-copper mine located in Monesterio, Spain, approximately 88km from the company’s Lomero Project.
Under the agreement, Alto Minerals S.L.U. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Denarius Metals in Spain and owner of the company’s Lomero Project), has acquired 50% of all the issued and outstanding shares of RNR in an arm’s length transaction with cash consideration totaling €25M, of which €2.5M has been paid on signing and the balance will be paid in instalments. €5.0M will be due at the end of March 2024 and approximately €5.8M at the end of June, September, and December of 2024.
The company used a portion of the proceeds from its recently completed convertible debenture financing to fund the initial payment and is currently in discussion with several parties regarding potential structured financing sources, including royalties, streaming, prepayments on offtake contracts and other similar arrangements, to fund the future payments due in 2024.
Ascendant Resources Inc. (TSX: ASND) has announced a non-brokered private placement for aggregate gross proceeds of up to C$2.776M. The company will issue up to 34.7M common shares at a price of C$0.08 per share.
The company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering toward completing an optimized feasibility study report focused on improved metallurgy and mine sequencing in Q2 2024, progressing project financing, and for working capital and general corporate purposes.
Mark Brennan, executive chairman, commented, “In conjunction with the recently announced US$4M funding by Sprott Resources Streaming and Royalty Corp., we are raising additional funds to take Lagoa Salgada to construction funding which is expected by the end of the third quarter of 2024. We have project funding support from UKEF, the UK Export Credit Agency to provide up to US$158M or up to 70% of our capital requirement to build the Lagoa Salgada project.”
New exploration and development
Also, Ionic Rare Earths Limited (ASX: IXR) advised that Ionic Technologies International Ltd, a 100% owned subsidiary based in Belfast, UK, has progressed the delivery of a feasibility study for a commercial magnet recycling facility, based in Belfast, UK.
Following the successful award of grants from the UK Government’s CLIMATES programme, Ionic Technologies has selected WSP as the engineer and project manager for delivery of the feasibility study for the magnet recycling facility.
Ionic has reported that the feasibility study forms the most significant single output of the CLIMATES project that Ionic Technologies will complete in partnership with the British Geological Survey (BGS), which will provide a comprehensive assessment of the feasibility and supply side dynamics of a magnet recycling facility within the UK.
This week, NuLegacy Gold Corporation (TSXV: NUG | OTC: NULGF) completed the first two reverse circulation (RC) drill holes of its five-hole fall 2023/winter 2024 drilling programme, with the sample chips shipped to the assay lab for prep and assaying.
The assay results for MR23-01 (drilled 11 to 21 November) are expected in mid-December, and results for IS23-02 (drilled 22 November 22 to 6 December) with the intervening Christmas break are expected in late January 2024.
Weather conditions in Nevada have made drilling conditions hazardous and more expensive. As a result, the company has agreed with the drilling contractor for an early Christmas break for equipment repairs and maintenance with a resumption in the New Year when the frost has gone deep enough to freeze the roads solid.
Drilling results
Northisle Copper and Gold Inc. (TSXV: NCX) has discovered a new mineralized porphyry system, now known as West Goodspeed, approximately 1,300m west of the Goodspeed target and 1,200m southeast of the Red Dog Deposit within the district-scale North Island Project.
Exploration during 2023 has demonstrated that the North Island Project, located in British Columbia, Canada, continues to expand in an area with existing infrastructure and a legacy of mining and resource production.
“This new West Goodspeed discovery is yet another example of the highly prospective nature of the northwest portion of the property,” commented Northisle CEO and president, Sam Lee. “Today’s drill results demonstrate very near surface mineralization over at least 200m of lateral extent in an area which has not previously been fully surveyed by modern exploration techniques or drilling. This newly discovered area remains open in all directions and gives us yet another target for 2024 exploration in addition to the gold rich zone at Northwest Expo.”
To wrap up, Pan Global Resources Inc. (TSXV: PGZ | OTCQX: PGZFF) has reported the intersection of additional high-grade near-surface copper mineralization at its 100% owned Escacena Project in the Iberian Pyrite Belt, southern Spain.
Assay results for five new drill holes from the western extension of the La Romana copper-tin-silver discovery confirm that the mineralization extends over more than 1.35km of strike and remains open. Also, these drill results include the highest grades intersected to-date in the current 25-hole drill programme.
- LRD171: 15.9m at 1.15% CuEq (1.04% Cu, 0.03% Sn, 2.4 g/t Ag) from 79m, including 9.9m at 1.70% CuEq (1.57% Cu, 0.04% Sn, 3.6 g/t Ag)
- LRD170: 12m at 1.04 % CuEq (0.80% Cu, 0.09% Sn, 2.1 g/t Ag) from 61m, including 7m at 1.47% CuEq (1.16% Cu, 0.11% Sn, 2.9 g/t Ag)
- LRD168: 13m at 1.02% CuEq (0.67 % Cu, 0.13% Sn, 1.6 g/t Ag) from 52m, including 7m at 1.43% CuEq (0.96% Cu, 0.17% Sn, 2.2 g/t Ag)
