Welcome to a roundup of some of our financing, exploration, and development stories on Theassay.com over the last week. To keep up to date with all the latest headlines, subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Financing and M&A
This week, Ascendant Resources Inc. (TSX: ASND | OTCQB: ASDRF | FRA: 2D9) announced that in relation to the Export Credit Agency (ECA) supported project financing of up to US$158M, the company has appointed Banco Santander, S.A. (Santander) as MLA for the Lagoa Salgada Project in Portugal.
Mark Brennan, executive chairman, commented, “We are very pleased to have Santander as our Mandated Lead Arranger for our project financing in partnership with UKEF, and look forward to working with these two experienced and respected institutions and their respective teams. The initiation of the project financing process is the next step to make Lagoa Salgada the next producing mine on the Iberian Pyrite Belt.”
Grid Metals Corp. (TSXV: GRDM | OTCQB: MSMGF) has announced a non-brokered private placement to raise gross proceeds of up to C$ 5.4M. The proceeds of the financing will be used for resource drilling at its Donner Lake Lithium Project and for exploration at Donner Lake and the Falcon West Lithium Property.
Approximately 20M shares of the financing will be purchased by two current institutional shareholders of the company, Waratah Capital Advisors and AMCI Group.
The financing is expected to close before Christmas on or about 21 December 2023. The financing will consist of a total of up to 30M special flow-through common shares sold by way of a charitable flow-through offering at C$0.18 each for gross proceeds of up to C$5.4M.
New exploration and development
Also, American Lithium Corp. (TSXV: LI | Nasdaq: AMLI | Frankfurt: 5LA1) has now completed and submitted the Semi-Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment Study for the Falchani Lithium Project in Southern Peru to the Ministry of Energy and Mines. The EIA-sd commenced in July 2022 with SRK Peru leading the process and EDASI SAC providing environmental services including detailed hydrological/hydrogeological studies at Falchani.
The filing of the EIA-sd was achieved ahead of schedule. With the filing acknowledged by MINEM, regulatory approval for the EIA-sd is anticipated in the coming months. It is expected that the Final EIA Study, which will enable construction and production at Falchani, will be filed and approved following the completion of the Pre-Feasibility Study and following submission and approval of detailed plans for mining and processing.
The EIA-sd provides a framework for approval of all major phases required to finalize the development of Falchani from mining reserve definition to completion of mine construction and is a critical part of mine permitting in Peru. Its approval should enable fast-tracking of full permits for building the mine, processing facilities, and tailings disposal.
Drilling results
St George Mining Limited (ASX: SGQ) has announced the discovery of a significant clay hosted rare earth element (REE) system at its wholly-owned Destiny Project in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia. St George acquired the Destiny Project, originally called Woolgangie, earlier this year and in September commenced on-the-ground exploration activities.
“These are ground-breaking results for the company in our first-ever drill programme at the Destiny Project, with high-grade rare earths confirmed along a 7km-long strike of the Ida Fault,” commented St George executive chairman, John Prineas.
“The flat-lying nature of the REE mineralization and the host clay zone allow for a fairly simple follow-up exploration programme of drilling along strike as well as infill drilling. We want to be back drilling at Destiny early in 2024 to unlock the full potential of this exciting REE discovery.”
Meanwhile, Freegold Ventures Limited (TSX: FVL | OCTQX: FGOVF) has announced additional drill results from its 2023 drill programme at its Golden Summit project in Alaska, USA; including the first results from the 2023 drilling west of Willow Creek. Assays are still pending for the Saddle Zone holes, located 4km east of the Dolphin/Cleary Zone.
Results successfully confirmed the potential to further expand the resource along strike to the west within a 1.5km long gold-in-soil geochemical anomaly and highlighted the potential for further expansion drilling to increase the overall resource grade.
The current programme is designed to test the boundaries, expand, and infill the current mineral resource estimate from February of this year, at 12.01Moz at 0.92g/t Au (407.5Mt indicated) and 7.7Moz at 0.85g/t (282.3Mt inferred).
Other company news
Lastly, Millennial Potash Corp. (TSXV: MLP | OTCQB: MLPNF | FSE: X0D) chairman, Farhad Abasov, held an important meeting with His Excellency Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, the President of the Republic and Head of State of Gabon on 30 November 2023, at COP28 United Nations Climate Change Conference in the UAE, to discuss Millennial’s Banio Potash Project.
Farhad Abasov, Millennial’s Chair, commented “We are very grateful to His Excellency the President of Gabon for meeting us despite his very busy schedule at COP28. It was a very cordial and productive meeting. We were encouraged to hear about strong support for foreign investments in various sectors in Gabon in general, and for our Banio Potash Project in particular. The Gabonese President emphasized the importance of Millennial’s potash project for the economic growth in the Mayumba region of the country. We also discussed the infrastructure development to support our project.”
