Planet cashes up McEwen cashes out

Vancouver The closing of a $6 million bought deal financing has given Goldcorp (G-T) a 13.4% equity stake in junior Planet Exploration (PXI-V).

The high-grade gold miner picked up $2.5 million, or 42% of the total financing, which priced the units at $1.40 each. A unit holds one share and one warrant. A warrant allows the holder to purchase one share at a price of $2 for a two-year period.

Planet recently completed a first pass exploration program over the Ovoot copper-gold property in Zavkhan province, Mongolia.

The junior collected 54 grab samples from the property with the highest value coming in at 9.11 grams gold per tonne and 1.86% copper. Other results include 5 grams gold and 5.2% copper, 2.3 grams gold and 4.7% copper, as well as 1.6 grams gold and 3.3% copper.

In total, Planet holds four exploration licenses in the Gobi region of Mongolia and is currently evaluating further prospects.

Earlier this year, Planet inked a deal to acquire the Copalquin gold-silver property in Durango, Mexico.

“We view the Copalquin property acquisition as a tremendous opportunity for Planet to further diversify its exploration portfolio with a very exciting project,” says company President, Ranjeet Sundher. “Our joint exploration program on the Sidace Lake project provides us with the flexibility to expand our exploration activities within the constraints of our current resources and gives us another opportunity to participate in a new gold discovery.”

The new project lies in the Sierra Madre belt and hosts a series of parallel ridges of fault breccia covering 3 km. The property is considered prospective for both high-grade vein and bulk tonnage gold mineralization.

Under the deal, Planet must spend US$1 million on exploration, pay US$415,000 in staged payments and issue US$24,000 worth of stock over a 5-year period. At the feasibility study stage, Planet agreed to pay US$1 per oz of recoverable gold or its equivalent in recoverable silver. The vendor retains a 2.5% net smelter royalty, of which 1.5% can be bought for US$1 million.

The company’s main asset is the Sidace Lake property in the Red Lake area of Ontario, where Goldcorp can earn 50% interest in the property by spending and cash payments totalling $2.55 million over three years.

While continuing to invest in junior explorers, Goldcorp has sold its 266,730 oz. of gold held in inventory. The company received an average price of US$388 per oz, adding US$104 million (US$88 million after taxes) to its coffers. The company intends to pay a one-time dividend to shareholders of record on Jan. 6 of US$0.10 per share, or US$18 million.

Goldcorp’s chief executive officer, Robert McEwen, also elected to take some money off the table by exercising options on 5.525 million Goldcorp shares worth US$28.4 million.

The option shares represented about 39% of his total interest in Goldcorp, bringing his current stake to about 4.5% of the firm’s outstanding shares.