Pebble Creek plans $10M for India

Vancouver — India-focused explorer Pebble Creek Mining (PEB-V, PBLEF-O) plans a $10-million financing to advance its Askot copper-zinc project.

The company is putting a piece of its wholly owned Indian subsidiary Adi Gold Mining, which owns the mineral rights covering the Askot project, on the market to institutional investors based in India. It hopes to price the minority interest at a premium to Pebble Creek’s current market capitalization of just $9.7 million.

Funds will be earmarked for further drilling and a feasibility study at Askot.

The placement will be subject to an agreement entitling Adi Gold Mining shareholders, effectively Pebble Creek shareholders, subscription rights to maintain their relative interests. Adi Gold Mining will transfer its other mineral assets into a new, wholly owned subsidiary of Pebble Creek.

Askot is a copper-zinc volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit that also contains significant gold, silver and lead values. A historic resource estimate of 770,000 tonnes grading 2.3% copper, 3.9% zinc and 2.6% lead was calculated in 1975 by the Geological Survey of India.

Subsequent historic estimates in the late 1980s projected about 1.2-1.35 million tonnes averaging about 2.1% copper, 5.1-5.3% zinc and 3.5-5.1% lead.

Aside from the Geological Survey of India, the United Nations Development Program and four other government agencies intermittently explored Askot bet- ween 1965 and 1988. Work included about 9,000 metres of drilling in 51 holes, roughly 1,000 metres of underground exploration workings on three levels and metallurgical tests.

Askot is located in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand and is near the border with Nepal.

India’s Ministry of Mines recently granted Pebble Creek’s subsidiary a mining lease for Askot.

Pebble Creek shares recently traded at around 40 in a 52-week range of 29-60.