Western Atlas Resources founder and CEO boosts stake in company

President and CEO Fabio Capponi of Western Atlas Resources (TSXV: WA) has increased his stake in the company to 23.37%, or 13.67 million common shares.

The junior exploration company with two properties in Nunavut announced that the company’s founder has directly and indirectly acquired a cumulative amount of 500,000 common shares pursuant to a private agreement.

If he were to exercise his 125,000 warrants and 620,500 options, Capponi would own 14.41 million common shares representing 25.36% of the company’s issued and outstanding common shares, the company said in a statement.

Western Atlas holds 170,000 hectares of mining claims along Nunavut’s rich Greenstone belts.

Its Meadowbank property consists of three non-contiguous claim blocks in the eastern part of Kivalliq district to the north of Baker Lake and 280 km northwest of the town of Rankin Inlet.

The claim blocks are accessible by an all-weather private road linking the settlement of Baker Lake to Agnico Eagle Mines’ (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM) Meadowbank mine and its Amaruq deposit.

Its Committee Bay property is made up of three non-contiguous blocks of claims in the eastern part of Nunavut’s Kitikmeot region, about 430 km north of Rankin Inlet.

Auryn Resources’ (TSX: AUG; NYSE: AUG) 100%-owned Three Bluffs deposit is about 40 km to the east of Western Atlas’ Committee Bay property, which is only accessible by air.

Western Atlas reported at the end of last week that it had concluded a 1,500 line km VTEM survey and continues to advance its exploration program on its Meadowbank project. The results of the survey are expected within a month.

Western Atlas said interpretation of the VTEM survey and prospecting/sampling program, in addition to its 2018 exploration program, will assist the company in selecting ground geophysical survey areas and drill hole collar positioning. In addition to the VTEM, Western Atlas has submitted an initial batch of 227 rock samples to a lab in Ancaster, Ontario.

In its July 20 exploration update to the market, Capponi said he was “very pleased with the way the exploration team is advancing in the field and with the encouraging findings within Block B and the many other areas which, following the results of the 2017 year exploration, are already known to contain iron formation horizons anomalous in gold.”

At press time in Toronto, Western Atlas shares were trading at 10¢ within a 52-week trading range of 9.5¢ and 32¢.

The junior has about 55.7 million shares and a market cap of $5.57 million.

Western Atlas Resources was originally established as a private company in 2013 and became active in December 2016. It became a publicly traded company after completing a reverse takeover in June 2018.