White Gold Corp. Announces Closing of Fully Subscribed C$6 Million Private Placement Led by Eric Sprott; Agnico Eagle and Kinross Maintain 17.1% Interest
TORONTO, June 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Further to its news release dated May 15, 2020, White Gold Corp. (TSX.V: WGO, OTC – Nasdaq Intl: WHGOF, FRA: 29W) (the “Company”) is pleased to announce the closing of a non-brokered private placement of 6,666,667 common shares (the “FT Shares”) of the Company, issued on a flow-through basis at a price of C$0.90 per FT Share for gross proceeds to the Company of C$6,000,000 (the “Offering”). Participants include Eric Sprott, certain funds managed by Sprott Asset Management LP, and insiders Pat DiCapo and David D’Onofrio. Upon closing of the Offering, the Company will have net working capital of approximately C$9M.
Pursuant to the Investor Rights Agreement between the Company and Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (TSX: AEM, NYSE: AEM) (“Agnico”) dated December 13, 2016, Agnico has maintained its 17.1% interest in the Company following the Offering. Additionally, pursuant to the Investor Rights Agreement between the Company and Kinross Gold Corporation (TSX: K, NYSE: KGC) (“Kinross”) dated June 14, 2017, Kinross has maintained its 17.1% interest in the Company following the Offering. In addition, certain other insiders of the Company (and together with Agnico and Kinross, the “Insiders”) acquired an aggregate of 611,112 FT Shares pursuant to the Offering.
“We are very grateful for the continued support of our major shareholders and excited to welcome Eric Sprott as a new shareholder. We look forward to kicking off our 2020 field season in the coming weeks where we will follow up on some of our exciting new discoveries and look to continue to increase our existing mineral resources,” stated David D’Onofrio, Chief Executive Officer.
2020 Exploration Program
The Company’s 2020 Exploration program is set to commence in the coming weeks. Further details are available in the Company’s news release dated May 20, 2020 and available on SEDAR, with additional details to be provided in due course.
2020 Exploration Program Highlights:
- Ryan’s Surprise target: Diamond drill program to test for strike and down-dip extensions of mineralization encountered in 2019 diamond drilling. The Ryan’s Surprise target is located 2km along strike from the Company’s flagship Golden Saddle & Arc deposits which have a current mineral resource of 1,039,600 gold ounces indicated at 2.26 g/t Au and 508,700 gold ounces inferred at 1.48 g/t Au.
- Titan target: Diamond drill program to test the extents of high-grade mineralization encountered in 2019 rotary air blast (RAB) drilling which included 72.81 g/t Au over 6.09 m from 10.67 m depth, within a 32 m zone of mineralization plus additional RC or RAB drilling to test similar north-trending magnetic high features within the magnetic low, and a separate northeast-striking gold-in-soil anomaly along the southern margin of the magnetic low feature.
- Other High Priority Targets: Approximately 25 RAB holes will be drilled to test high-priority targets on the White Gold, Hen and JP Ross properties.
- JP Ross Property: Mechanical trenching will be carried out on a number of existing targets on the JP Ross property highlighted by 2019 results from soil geochemistry, GT probe samples, VLF surveys, RAB drilling and geological and structural interpretations, in order to collect key structural data to aid in ongoing interpretations and future drill planning.
- Extensive regional exploration work on other properties will include geologic mapping and prospecting, soil sampling, GT probe sampling, ultra high-resolution drone imagery, and ground magnetics and VLF surveying on the Betty, Nolan, Bonanza and Tea properties.
A district scale map outlining the Company’s planned 2020 exploration work areas and other images accompanying this news release can be found at http://whitegoldcorp.ca/investors/exploration-highlights/.
The gross proceeds received from the sale of the FT Shares will be used to incur “Canadian exploration expenses” as defined in subsection 66.1(6) of the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the “Tax Act”) on the Company’s properties in the White Gold District of the Yukon Territory, and renounced to subscribers in the Offering effective December 31, 2020. Such Canadian exploration expenses will also qualify as “flow-through mining expenditures” as defined in subsection 127(9) of the Tax Act. Participation by the Insiders in the Offering was considered a “related party transaction” pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 – Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (“MI 61-101”). The Company was exempt from the requirements to obtain a formal valuation or minority shareholder approval in connection with the Insiders’ participation in the Offering in reliance of sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101. A material change report was filed in connection with the participation of Insiders in the Offering less than 21 days in advance of the closing of the Offering, which the Company deemed reasonable in the circumstances so as to be able to avail itself of potential financing opportunities and complete the Offering in an expeditious manner.
The FT Shares issued pursuant to the Offering are subject to a statutory four month and one day hold period under applicable Canadian securities laws expiring on October 10, 2020. The Offering is subject to the final acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange (“TSXV”).
The Company also announces that a total of 3,250,000 options to purchase common shares of the Company have been granted to directors, officers, employees and consultants at an exercise price of $0.90 per share, expiring on June 10, 2025. The grant is subject to regulatory approval.
About White Gold Corp.
The Company owns a portfolio of 21,111 quartz claims across 33 properties covering over 420,000 hectares representing over 40% of the Yukon’s prolific White Gold District. The Company’s flagship White Gold property hosts the Company’s Golden Saddle and Arc deposits which have a mineral resource of 1,039,600 ounces Indicated at 2.26 g/t gold and 508,700 ounces Inferred at 1.48 g/t gold. Mineralization on the Golden Saddle and Arc is also known to extend beyond the limits of the current resource estimate. The Company’s recently acquired VG Deposit also hosts a historic Inferred gold resource of 230,000 ounces at 1.65 g/t Au(1). Regional exploration work has also produced several other new discoveries and prospective targets on the Company’s claim packages which border sizable gold discoveries including the Coffee project owned by Newmont Corporation with Measured and Indicated Resources of 2.17 Moz at 1.46 g/t Au, and Inferred Resources of 0.50 Moz at 1.32 g/t Au(2), and Western Copper and Gold Corporation’s Casino project which has Proven and Probable reserves of 8.9 Moz Au and 4.5 Blb Cu(2). For more information visit www.whitegoldcorp.ca.
(1) See Comstock Metals Ltd. technical report titled “NI 43-101 TECHNICAL REPORT on the QV PROJECT”, dated August 19, 2014, available on SEDAR.
(2) Noted mineralization is as disclosed by the owner of each property respectively and is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization hosted on the Company’s property.
Qualified Person
Terry Brace, P.Geo. and Vice President of Exploration for the Company is a “qualified person” as defined under National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure of Mineral Projects and has reviewed and approved the content of this news release.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Information
This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", “proposed”, "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate to, among other things, the Company’s objectives, goals and exploration activities conducted and proposed to be conducted at the Company’s properties; future growth potential of the Company, including whether any proposed exploration programs at any of the Company’s properties will be successful; exploration results; and future exploration plans and costs and financing availability.
These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include: the expected benefits to the Company relating to the exploration conducted and proposed to be conducted at the White Gold properties; the receipt of all applicable regulatory approvals for the Offering; failure to identify any additional mineral resources or significant mineralization; the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results; uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, including to fund any exploration programs on the Company’s properties; business integration risks; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold, silver, base metals or certain other commodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations pressures, cave-ins and flooding); inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining and mineral exploration; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); the unlikelihood that properties that are explored are ultimately developed into producing mines; geological factors; actual results of current and future exploration; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be evaluated; soil sampling results being preliminary in nature and are not conclusive evidence of the likelihood of a mineral deposit; title to properties; ongoing uncertainties relating to the COVID-19 pandemic; and those factors described in the most recently filed management’s discussion and analysis of the Company. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information, or the material factors or assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information, will prove to be accurate. The Company does not undertake to release publicly any revisions for updating any voluntary forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities law.
Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
Contact Information:
David D’Onofrio
Chief Executive Officer
White Gold Corp.
(647) 930-1880
ir@whitegoldcorp.ca
