FINANCE – Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. Oct. 16 reported the closing of its bought-deal private placement of common shares, for gross proceeds of C$75 million. A syndicate of underwriters – led by BMO Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets and Scotia Capital Inc. and including Haywood Securities Inc. – sold 15 million Mountain Province common shares at C$5.00 per share, by way of a bought-deal private placement. The Underwriters received a cash commission of 5 percent of the gross proceeds. Additionally, Mountain Province Diamonds announced a concurrent non-brokered private placement of common shares at a price of C$5.00 per share, for gross proceeds of C$25 million. The common shares issued in the bought-deal and non-brokered private placements are subject to a four month hold period, expiring Feb. 17, 2015. The net proceeds of the private placements will be used for the continued development of the company’s Gahcho Kué project in Northwest Territories and for general corporate purposes.
DIAMONDS – Dominion Diamond Corp. Oct. 15 said it has completed a previously announced acquisition of the interests of C. Fipke Holdings Ltd. in the Ekati Diamond Mine. The Ekati Diamond Mine consists of the Core Zone, which includes the current operating mine and other permitted kimberlite pipes, as well as the Buffer Zone, an adjacent area hosting kimberlite pipes having both development and exploration potential, including the Jay and Lynx pipes. Each of Stewart Blusson, Ph.D., and Archon Minerals Ltd. exercised their rights of first refusal to acquire their proportionate share of the interests in the Core zone and Buffer zone, respectively, being sold by FipkeCo. As a consequence, the company acquired an additional 8.889 percent participating interest in the Core Zone and an additional 6.53 percent participating interest in the Buffer zone. The base purchase price for the acquired Core zone interest was US$42.2 million, plus purchase price adjustments of US$13.2 million for a total amount payable of US$55.4 million. The purchase price adjustments were paid in cash at closing, and the base purchase price was satisfied by a promissory note payable in installments over 31 months. The company has the right, but not the obligation, to satisfy one or more installments due under the promissory note in common shares of the company. The base purchase price for the acquired Buffer zone interest was US$11.11 million, plus purchase price adjustments of US$3.24 million, for a total amount paid in cash at closing of US$14.35 million. After giving effect to the transactions, Dominion now holds an 88.889 percent interest in the Core zone and a 65.3 percent interest in the Buffer zone.
BEREAVEMENT/FINANCE – Olivut Resources Ltd. Oct. 15 said it will sadly miss the guidance and friendship of Sargent “Sarge” Berner, who gave generously of his time and energy as a member of the company’s board of directors since 2007 until his death Sept. 10. Berner, a graduate of the University of British Columbia and the London School of Economics, was formerly a senior partner of the Vancouver law firm DuMoulin Black LLP where he practiced in the areas of corporate, securities and natural resource law. Berner also previously taught law at UBC and served as a director of and advisor to a number of other public companies. “Sarge was never shy and was always willing to share his knowledge and expertise and provide valuable guidance through strong opinions delivered with his quick, dry wit! He was thoroughly interested in and actively pursued an in-depth understanding of our exploration undertakings. He was continuously supportive of Olivut throughout these tough markets. We will miss him personally as well as professionally,” the company said in a statement.
Olivut also reported that it closed a non-brokered private placement for aggregate gross proceeds of C$330,000. The private placement is comprised of placements of 420,000 flow-through common shares for proceeds of C$105,000 at a price of C$25 per FT share, and 1,125,000 common shares for proceeds of $225,000 at a price of C20 cents per common share. The FT Shares and the common shares are subject to resale restrictions pursuant to applicable securities laws requirements and will not be freely tradable until Feb. 16, 2015. Two company insiders participated in the private placement. Olivut paid a finder’s fee of C$300, equal to 1 percent of certain gross proceeds of the FT placement, to a registered dealer. Olivut will use the proceeds of the FT placement primarily to fund exploration of its HOAM project in the Northwest Territories, and proceeds of the common shares for exploration and general corporate purposes.
FINANCE – TerraX Minerals Inc. Oct. 15 said, due to additional demand, it has increased its previously announced non-brokered private placement by 1,927,786 units at C35 cents per unit, bringing the total amount raised to C$2,774,725. Each unit consists of one common share and one-half of one share purchase warrant, with each full warrant entitling the holder to purchase an additional common share at an exercise price of C50 cents per share for a period of three years from the date of closing. The third and final tranche of this private placement, for C$365,150, is scheduled to close on Oct. 16. Finders’ fees will be payable on a portion of this placement, which is subject to acceptance for filing by the TSX Venture Exchange. The proceeds of this private placement will be used to finance drilling this winter on TerraX’s Yellowknife City Gold Project, immediately north of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories.
DIAMONDS – Kennady Diamonds Inc. Oct. 14 said it has increased its tonnage guidance for the Kelvin-Faraday kimberlite corridor of its Kennady North project from 7-10 million metric tons to 9-12 million metric tons. This increased tonnage estimate is based on the drilling completed to date. The potential quantity is conceptual in nature as drilling at the Kelvin-Faraday kimberlite complex is still underway and a mineral resource will only be defined once the Kelvin kimberlite has been further delineated. Based on the continuing success, Kennady Diamonds now expects to declare a maiden mineral resource in 2015. To date, approximately 15,300 meters has been drilled at the Kelvin kimberlite as part of the 2014 summer/fall drill program. Based on the continuing success, the company now plans to drill 18,000 meters during the program. In addition, approximately 27.3 metric tons of kimberlite has been recovered from Kelvin and the company has now increased its target to 30 metric tons. Kennady Diamonds CEO Patrick Evans said, “The Kelvin drill program has delivered results well beyond our expectations. After three months of drilling this summer/fall, we have increased the strike of the Kelvin kimberlite pipe to over 600 meters. As we have moved north, delineation drilling has confirmed that the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the pipe are increasing. Besides the increasing volume, the Kelvin pipe remains open on strike to the north and we have yet to find the feeder pipe to the Kelvin-Faraday kimberlite complex.” In view of the progress that has been made with drilling at the Kelvin kimberlite, construction of an advanced exploration camp at Kelvin Lake is underway. The camp, which is expected to be operational within a month, will support year-round drilling at the Kelvin - Faraday kimberlite corridor, including the continuation of the current drill program. Bob Camp, which is approximately 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) west of Kelvin Camp, will continue to serve as the regional exploration camp for the Kennady North project. With access to the advanced exploration camp at Kelvin, Kennady Diamonds is planning to accelerate the bulk sampling of the Kelvin kimberlite, which is expected to begin in early 2015. The potential for a 500 to 700 metric ton bulk sampling program by large-diameter reverse-circulation drilling is under consideration. Finally, the Company is pleased to announce that the processing of basal till samples from 272 reverse-circulation holes drilled across the 61,000-hectare (150,700 acres) Kennady North project is nearing completion. It is expected that these results, combined with extensive geophysics conducted over the past two years, will enable Kennady Diamonds to refine its exploration program across the entire Kennady North project.
DIAMONDS – Dominion Diamond Corp. Oct. 14 reported Diavik Diamond Mine production results of 1.67 million carats from 560,000 metric tons of ore processed for the third calendar quarter of 2014. Processing volumes and diamonds recovered in the third calendar quarter were consistent with the same quarter of the prior year. Through the third quarter, initiatives associated with improving availabilities, removing plant bottlenecks and increasing utilization of equipment were maintained, which have contributed to the significant improvement in tonnage processed and carats recovered on a year-to-date basis. On the mining front, continued efforts around mining equipment and shift utilization and increasing payload on equipment translated into better than expected ore production. The plan for metric tons processed includes material from both mining and stockpiles. Mining activities will be exclusively underground with about 700,000 metric tons expected to be sourced from A-154 North, roughly 500,000 metric tons from A-154 South and about 800,000 metric tons from A-418 kimberlite pipes. The 8 percent increase in expected carat production from run of mine ore compared to the original mine plan results primarily from an increase in ore processed as a result of improvements in the availability and utilization of the processing plant and the availability of stockpiled ore at the beginning of the year. The Diavik Diamond Mine full-year production target (on a 100 percent basis) and based on a revised mine plan for calendar 2014 is expected to total 6.5 million carats from 2.2 million metric tons processed. In addition to the 6.5 million carats produced from run of mine ore, there will be production from coarse ore rejects. This additional production is not included in the company’s ore reserves, and is therefore incremental. Based on historical recovery rates, the tonnage of this material, which is planned to be processed during calendar 2014 would have produced 300,000 carats from COR. Dominion owns a 40 percent interest in the Diavik mine; the remaining 60 percent is held by a subsidiary of Rio Tinto plc.
