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
During the past week, Ascot Resources Ltd. (TSX: AOT | OTCQX: AOTVF) has finalized the terms of definitive documentation for a total of approximately US$50M in funding from Sprott Resource Streaming and Royalty Corp. and its affiliates, and Nebari Natural Resources Credit Fund.
Ascot has announced that the closing date for the previously announced bought deal financing with a syndicate of underwriters, co-lead by BMO Capital Markets and Desjardins Capital Markets, is now scheduled for the 20 February 2024.
The company has received TSX conditional approval for these transactions, however, the closing of the bought deal financing remains subject to customary closing conditions. The release from escrow of the definitive documentation executed by Ascot, Sprott Streaming, and Nebari is subject to the parties’ express release upon the concurrent completion of the bought deal financing and the submission for registration of certain debentures.
New exploration and development
KEFI (AIM: KEFI) has provided an update on the project launch preparation activities at the high-grade Tulu Kapi Gold Project in Ethiopia following several days of meetings with senior representatives of the Tulu Kapi stakeholders at Mining Indaba 2024, Cape Town.
After the three critical conditions set by the project lenders were formally achieved in October 2023, the final credit committee was approved by the lead-lender.
The company has now reported that all the other parties in the funding syndicate, have advised they go to their respective committees to approve the proposed transaction this month.
“This multi-party subsidiary-level financing is now advancing on the back of the government commitments finally received in October, triggering the lead-lender to quickly process its approval in December 2023 and now all other stakeholders triggering their respective flow-on processes.” Said executive chairman, Harry Anagnostaras-Adams.
Also, St George Mining Limited (ASX: SGQ) has announced promising soil sampling results at its flagship Mt Alexander Project in Western Australia.
John Prineas, St George Mining’s executive chairman said, “We are very pleased with the results of the latest soils programme, which delineated not just one but a series of strong kilometre-long lithium soil anomalies in areas not yet drill tested for lithium. The consistency and cohesiveness of the lithium values within these large-scale anomalies is impressive. The coincident pathfinder elements like tantalum and caesium as well as the extensive pegmatite outcrop make these areas compelling drill targets.”
Drilling results
Freegold Ventures Limited (TSX: FVL | OCTQX: FGOVF) has announced additional drill results from its 2023 drill programme, including further drilling west of Willow Creek which returned 133.5m grading 1.43g/t beginning at 96.6m.
The company’s 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 at potentially shallower depths and highlighted the potential to increase the overall resource grade by further expansion drilling.
Significant mineralization, including broad zones of higher-grade mineralization, was consistently intersected during the 2023 drill programme. One of the highest-grade intercepts was seen in hole GS2333, located 250m west of the main Dolphin area.
This hole intersected multiple zones with over 2g/t Au over a significant width of over 197.3m within a broader interval of 1.76g/t Au over 276.5m. Mineralization is still open up-dip, down-dip, and to depth.
In 2024, the programme will target higher-grade mineralization that may exist at shallower depths to the west of the existing resource. The up-dip projection of GS2333 coincides with a strong surface gold-in-soil anomaly, part of the 1.5km soil anomaly to the west of Willow Creek. It’s worth noting that soil anomalies have been useful in identifying mineralization at Golden Summit since the area was not glaciated.
Lastly, ECR Minerals plc (LON: ECR) has shared an initial update on its drilling programme at the Davey Road site within its Creswick tenement. The drilling was carried out in December 2023.
Seven holes were completed during the drill programme, unearthing substantial evidence of anomalous gold. The most notable result was the discovery of 23.39g/t Au over a span of 1m, which stands as a testament to the richness of the site.
The company has stated that the top sample continues to show promising signs, with 4.7g/t Au still present in the tailings from the initial results. This aligns with ECR’s expectation of finding coarse gold in this location, further bolstering the confidence in the project’s potential.
In addition to the initial drilling, approximately 30 extra bulk samples have been collected. Each sample weighs between 20-30kg and is derived from the preliminary drilling results. These samples have been concentrated using a dry blower, a process during which gold has consistently been visible. These samples are now enroute for laboratory testing, which will provide a more detailed analysis of their composition.
