SPIN-OUT – International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. Aug. 13 said its shareholders voted 99.85 percent in favor of approving the spin-out of its Alaska and Nevada exploration assets into Corvus Gold Inc. by way of a plan of arrangement. More than 54 percent of outstanding shares of the company voted on the arrangement resolution at a special meeting held Aug. 12. Tower Hill President and CEO Jeff Pontius said, “The completion of the arrangement will allow ITH to focus all of its energies on the ongoing development of the Livengood Project. Corvus, as a separate and independent company, will be able to focus on generating value from the company’s current Alaska and Nevada exploration projects through the further exploration of those projects, as well as utilizing our extensive Alaska database to identify and acquire additional prospective projects.” A hearing for the approval of the arrangement by the Supreme Court of British Columbia is scheduled for Aug. 20. Also, Corvus has received conditional approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange to list the common shares of Corvus on the TSX.
GOLD – Harmony Gold Corp. Aug. 16 said it has entered into a second amendment agreement with Full Metals Minerals Inc. to acquire an additional 20 percent interest in the Lucky Shot Project, which, if exercised, would result in Harmony Gold owning 80 percent of the high-grade gold property in Southcentral Alaska. In order to acquire and exercise the option Harmony must pay Full Metal US$250,000 on the closing of its next financing and pay an additional US$250,000 in cash on the first anniversary of the closing date of the financing. Harmony must also issue 1 million of its shares to Full Metal on the Lucky Shot gold mine producing 200,000 ounces of gold, issue 2 million shares upon producing 500,000 ounces of gold and issue 3 million shares upon Lucky Shot producing 750,000 ounces of gold. Harmony president and CEO Craig Engelsman said, "We are very pleased to have completed negotiations with Full Metals to increase Harmony's potential percentage ownership in the Lucky Shot Project from 60 percent to 80 percent. Both parties recognized that the path to putting the Lucky Shot Project into production would be best served by Harmony having the opportunity to acquire a more significant interest in the Project, and believe that our shareholders will be best served by increasing our interest. We are progressing well with our development plans and look forward to working with AHI (Alaska Hardrock Inc.) to aggressively move the Lucky Shot project forward.”
GOLD – Teryl Resources Corp. Aug. 19 said its joint venture partner at the Gil property in Alaska, Kinross Gold Corp., has completed 1,628 meters of core drilling and 2,882 meters of reverse circulation drilling at the gold property near Kinross’ Fort Knox Mine. Hole GVR10-568, drilled at the North Gil prospect, cut 10.67 meters grading 2.67 grams per metric ton gold. GVR10-569, also at North Gill, cut 15.24 meters averaging 1.24 g/t. Hole GVR 10-563, drilled at the Sourdough prospect intersected 7.62 meters at 1.03 g/t gold. Assays from 18 additional holes are pending. Teryl said the goal of the 2010 program is to further delineate the strike extension of the mineralized zones, and to infill between step-out holes, in order to gain a better understanding of ore-zone continuity. Kinross subsidiary, Fairbanks Gold Mining, Inc. has 80 percent interest of the Gil and Teryl has the remaining 20 percent.
COPPER – Caribou Copper Resources Ltd. Aug. 5 reported results of its recently completed trenching program at its 10,240 acre Caribou Dome property, located in the Talkeetna Mining District of Southcentral Alaska. In preparation for this year’s drilling, the company exposed copper mineralization in nine trenches in the eastern portion of mapped surface mineralization. The company collected 51 chip samples from the trenches. Individual sample assays were combined by the company to produce results for each trench. A cut-off grade of 0.5 percent copper was used in determining the length of mineralization in each trench. Highlight include: 4.03 percent copper over 7 meters, including 7.13 percent over 3 meters and 6.18g/t silver over 7 meters in trench 4; 2.96 percent copper over 2 meters and 6.35 g/t silver over 2 meters in trench 5; 1.99 percent copper over 2 meters and 17.8 g/t silver over 3 meters in trench 6; and 3.78 percent copper over 2.5 meters in trench 11. The results of this field work will be used to identify drill targets in lodes 3, 7 and 8, which have seen very little historic drilling.
FINANCE – Kiska Metals Corp. Aug. 16 said it has closed the non-brokered portion of the private placement announced July 21 and increased in scope July 30. A total of C$6,435,700 was raised, including this C$2,332,900 non-brokered portion. Each unit, priced at C82 cents, consists of one common share and one half of one purchase warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder to purchase one common share at a price of C$1.15 per share until Aug. 16, 2012. The net proceeds from the offering will be used to fund further exploration of the Whistler project, exploration of the company's other mineral properties, and for general corporate purposes.
FINANCE – Full Metal Minerals Ltd. Aug. 18 said it has closed the first tranche of a non-brokered private placement financing for gross proceeds of C$3,430,480. The Company issued 19,058,221 units at C18 cents per unit. Each unit in the private placement is comprised of one common share and one-half of one share purchase warrant with each whole warrant exercisable into one additional common share at a price of C25 cents until Aug. 17, 2012. Finders’ fees of C$16,452 and 833,333 shares were paid in connection with this tranche. Work by Full Metal during 2010 will include drilling programs at the 100 percent-owned Fortymile zinc-silver-lead property, underground development with Harmony Gold at the Lucky Shot gold property, as well as additional surface work and drilling programs at several of Full Metal's properties funded by joint venture partners.
IRON – Advanced Explorations Inc. Aug. 18 said it has entered into an option agreement with Alaska-based 7th Sea Holdings Company to acquire up to a 100 percent interest in 7th Sea's wholly owned Alaskan claims and 15.5-mile, or 25-kilometer, area of interest. With iron sand mineralization exposed at surface for over 15.5 miles, or 25 kilometers, the company believes the project has a high tonnage potential. A spot sample for the USGS National Geochemical Survey database (2001) of 65.6 percent Fe2O3 is what drew 7th Sea to the area. A composite sands sample taken during an initial site visit returned a result of 8.23 percent Fe2O3 which compares favorably to other iron sands projects. Advanced believes additional advantages are a year-round shipping window, potential low mining cost and the proximity to the Asian market. “With the option to acquire a potential iron sands project, we are adding another property to our portfolio that emphasizes our focus on iron ore and facilitates the expertise and skill set of our team. In-house sampling to date indicates iron content comparable to other global iron sands projects,” said Advanced President and CEO John Gingerich. The agreement is subject to a 90-day due diligence period.
