Vancouver — The closing of a $6-million bought-deal financing has given
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 buy one share at $2 for two years.
Planet recently completed an initial exploration program over the Ovoot copper-gold property in Zavkhan province, Mongolia.
The junior collected 54 grab samples from the property. The highest value was 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, and 1.6 grams gold and 3.3% copper.
Planet holds four exploration licences in the Gobi region of Mongolia and is 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 diversify its exploration portfolio with an exciting project,” says Planet 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, situated in the Sierra Madre belt, 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 five years. 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 return 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. Goldcorp can earn a half-interest in the property by contributing $2.55 million over three years in the form of expenditures and cash payments.
While continuing to invest in junior explorers, Goldcorp has sold its 266,730 oz. 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. The dividend is valued at US10 per share, or US$18 million.
Goldcorp CEO Robert McEwen also elected to take some money off the table by exercising options on 5.525 million Goldcorp shares at an average price of US$5.15 each, injecting US$28.4 million into the company’s coffers. McEwen promptly sold all the shares on Dec. 16 at around US$16.40 for a pre-tax profit of about US$62 million (C$83 million).
The unloaded shares represented about 39% of his total interest in Goldcorp, which was reduced to about 7 million shares and 2.3 million options, or about 4.5% of the firm’s outstanding shares.
McEwen’s salary at Goldcorp in 2002 was US$220,845, plus he received a US$1.9-million bonus.
Goldcorp shares had slipped to US$15.41 (C$20.46) by presstime, while Planet shares were showing some strength at C$1.58.
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