Toronto-based GMP Securities says institutional investors bought most of the shares, with some acquired by Pac Rim’s management. As things stand, no one investor holds 10% or more of the stock.
“We are pleased the Kinross shareholding was placed primarily institutionally and that the overhang in the market was cleared,” says Pac Rim President Catherine McLeod-Seltzer.
Pacific Rim recently posted a third-quarter loss of US$1.7 million (or 2 per share), compared with a year-earlier loss of US$1.3 million (2 per share). The bigger loss primarily reflects increased exploration spending. Revenue from gold and silver sales between the two periods increased to US$3.6 million from $3 million. Higher gold prices helped offset lower gold sales volumes (8,500 oz. vs. 8,800 oz.), while the company’s average realized price for the quarter climbed US$74 per oz. to US$381 per oz.
Shares in Pacific Rim finished 30, or nearly 19%, lower at $1.30, with more than 18.4 million shares traded — enough to rank as the TSX’s most traded issue on Dec. 23, the day of the sale. The shares rebounded 14, to $1.44, in early trading on Dec. 24.
In other news, drilling by Pac Rim has intersected a gold-mineralized structure 1.2 km east of the Minita vein at the El Dorado gold project in El Salvador.
Hole 268, the first to test the Gonso vein structure, returned 11.1 grams gold and 118.1 grams silver over a true width of 1.35 metres beginning at a down-hole depth of 396.1 metres.
The intercept was in the lower portions of the productive interval, where grades generally drop off. Pac Rim has yet to receive results from a second hole, no. 270, collared 250 metres along strike to the southwest.
The company plans to move a second drill rig, currently testing veins in the northern district, to the Gonso vein to accelerate delineation of the discovery.
Meanwhile, stepout drilling on the Minita vein system was highlighted by a 3.5-metre section grading 11.5 grams gold and 103.8 grams silver in hole 262. The remaining six holes generally yielded 6-30 grams gold and 20-220 grams silver over smaller widths.
At last count, the Minita vein system was home to a measured and indicated resource of 1.6 million tones grading 11.4 grams gold and 70.3 grams silver, equivalent to 585,000 oz. of contained gold and 3.6 million oz. silver.
Three holes were sunk on subsidiary veins in the San Matias system in the northern district, but they failed to cut any significant mineralization. Similarly, the single hole that tested the Candelaria and Chica veins in the Central district came up dry.
Scout drilling at San Matias will follow drilling at Gonso.
Closer to home, Pac Rim recently picked up two early-stage gold projects in Nevada. The 81-claim Aurora project borders
Pac Rim paid US$25,000 on signing and must fork over an additional US$850,000 in annual payments. The deal also allows Pac Rim to buy back 2% of a 3% net smelter return royalty retained by the vendors for US$2 million.
Pac Rim will carry out mapping and sampling on the property’s bonanza veins in anticipation of reverse-circulation drilling.
In Nevada’s Crescent Valley, the company staked the Sure Fire project along the Northern Nevada rift. The 191-claim property lies along the rift structures that control the Fire Creek and Mule Canyon mines.
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