Pure Gold raises $15m from 'cornerstone investor'

Pure Gold Mining has agreed to issue, on a non-brokered private placement basis, 9,868,421 charity flow-through common shares at a price of $1.52 each, it announced on Wednesday, for gross proceeds of $15m.

The London-listed firm said Eric Sprott had agreed to be the back-end buyer of all of the shares.

“Pure Gold has all the attributes I look for in a company - location, grade, size and growth,” Sprott said.

“Pure Gold's mine in Red Lake has over seven kilometres of strike with known high grade shoots, that have only been defined down to 1,200 metres, compared to 2,500 metres in the neighbouring Red Lake mine complex.

“The ultra-high grade hits in the eight zone remind me a lot of the HG Zone that built Goldcorp, as well as SMC at Macassa and the Swan Zone at Fosterville.”

Sprott said those were the types of discoveries that had the potential to be “company makers”, adding that they tended to lead to a “much higher production profile” than originally given credit.

Pure Gold chief executive officer Darin Labrenz described Sprott as a “cornerstone investor”, who continued to be a “strong supporter” of the company’s vision to become a high margin, long-life gold producer uniquely positioned in the Red Lake camp.

“We are fully funded and on-track to pour our first gold in the fourth quarter of 2020 into a record high gold price environment for Canadian producers.

“This new investment in exploration enables us to concurrently ramp up our focus on aggressive resource growth without impacting our capital budget for final mine completion and first gold pour.

“We believe this combination of near-term cash flow through production and organic resource growth will create significant value for our shareholders in the near term.”

The company said the gross proceeds from the issuance of the shares would be used for Canadian exploration expenses, and would qualify as flow-through mining expenditures" as defined in the Income Tax Act of Canada, which would be renounced to the initial purchasers of the shares with an effective date no later than 31 December, in an amount no less than the gross proceeds raised.

If the qualifying expenditures are reduced by the Canada Revenue Agency, the firm said it would indemnify each initial purchaser of the shares for any additional taxes payable by the subscriber.

It said it expected closing to occur on or around 17 June, subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including receipt of all applicable regulatory approvals including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

The shares to be issued under the financing would have a hold period of four months and one day from the closing date.

In consideration for their services, Pure Gold said a finders' fee equal to 6% of the gross proceeds was payable to a group of financial advisors, led by Clarus Securities.

At 1139 BST, shares in Pure Gold Mining were up 15.62% in London, at 79.2p.