Lumina Gold (TSXV: LUM; US-OTC: LUMAF) is spinning all but one of its properties out into a separate company called Luminex Resources. It retains the Cangrejos gold-copper project, located in Ecuador's El Oro province, 30 km southeast of the provincial capital, Machala.
Lumina shareholders can exchange one Lumina share for one new Lumina share plus 0.15 of a Luminex share. The company says Lumina option-holders will receive replacement options of Lumina as well as options for Luminex.
The company expects shares of Luminex to begin trading on the Venture Exchange momentarily under the ticker symbol 'LR.'
Lumina closed a $7 million private placement in late July that it says funded the spin out. The company sold 9.73 million shares at 72 ? a-piece.
Recent changes to the Ecuadorian mining code will let the company start drilling the west side of its Cangrejos project, called the C20 area.
The new rules allow companies to conduct limited drilling during the early phases of exploration. Previously, miners required an environmental license to drill, which they could obtain during the more advanced stages of exploration.
The C20 area contains the Gran Bestia zone, less than 1 km northwest from the main Cangrejos deposit. Former-owner Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM) drilled five holes at Gran Bestia.
The company is hopeful that it can extend a large, high-grade zone found more than 300 metres below surface at Cangrejos out toward Gran Bestia.
Currently, Cangrejos contains 408 million inferred tonnes grading 0.65 gram per tonne gold, 0.11% copper, 0.6 gram silver and 25 parts per million molybdenum for 8.5 million oz. gold, 1.03 billion lb. copper, 7.8 million oz. silver and 22.5 million lb. molybdenum.
Shares of Lumina are currently trading at 81 ? with a 52-week range of 60 ? to 85 ?. The company has a $214 million market capitalization.