FINANCE – Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. Dec. 29 reported plans to privately place, with certain accredited investors and management of the company, roughly 36 million special warrants priced at C43.1 cents each to raise about C$15.5 million. The warrants will convert on exercise into common shares on a one-for-one basis, subject to certain restrictions, without payment of any consideration. Northern Dynasty insiders will subscribe for about 9 million of the special warrants. Northern Dynasty said it will agree to file a prospectus in certain Canadian provinces to qualify the conversion of the warrants and a registration statement in the United States to qualify the resale of Common Shares by U.S. investors. The company said it will use reasonable best efforts to clear the resale filings within 90 days from the closing date and has agreed to maintain the U.S. registration statement effective for a longer period. There are no share bump-up or other penalties if clearance of the resale filings is delayed for any reason. Details of the special warrant terms will be contained in the resale filings along with a general update of disclosure about Northern Dynasty.

FINANCE – Heatherdale Resources Ltd. Dec. 24 reported an agreement with Sino Canada Natural Resources Fund I to amend the terms of a C$3 million convertible debenture set to mature on Dec. 31, 2014. The debenture formed the payment obligations under a 2012 financing agreement. The term of the convertible debenture will be extended for another two years such that it would mature on Dec. 31, 2016; and the 8 percent interest on the debenture (formerly payable at 4 percent cash, 4 percent Heatherdale shares at the greater of market price and C20 cents per share) will be payable quarterly in Heatherdale shares only. Heatherdale is focused on the exploration and development of the advanced exploration-stage Niblack volcanogenic massive sulfide project in Southeast Alaska.

GOLD – Redstar Gold Corp. Dec. 22 reported results from exploration of the Shumigan trend at its Unga gold project on Unga Island in the Aleutian Arc of Southwest Alaska. Continuing from the recently announced results for work performed along the Apollo-Sitka trend, Redstar says the new results show further high-grade gold and silver results in rock samples, while positive soil and talus sampling results extend zones of known mineralization along the Shumigan trend. This work tested two prospective areas along the Shumigan trend – Shumigan and Aquila – both known to host previously-documented mineralization. At the Shumigan prospect, a soil sample grid of roughly 750 meters by 200 meters was oriented to test the western extension of known surface and sub-surface mineralization along inferred structures. Results from the survey show a gold and silver geochemical soil signature of 20-50 parts per billion gold (up to 615 ppb gold) and greater than 0.5 grams per metric ton silver (up to 6.8 g/t silver) that has been defined over areas of historical trenching. This anomaly has been extended to the southwest by about 400 meters, where anomalous values occur along the southwestern flank of a low-lying ridge that abuts an active, north-draining flood plain. Rock chip sampling produced results of up to 9.93 g/t gold and 74.4 g/t silver from quartz vein breccias and stockwork that occur in surface outcrops. At the Aquila prospect, situated at the western end of the Shumigan trend, a series of reconnaissance soil lines placed within upland areas covering strong argillic alteration zones produced scattered results of approximately 50 ppb gold (up to 197 ppb gold) and 0.5 to 1.3 g/t silver (up to 3.51 g/t silver). A single select rock sample of a narrow breccia vein sampled within an intense argillic alteration zone produced results of 90.2 g/t silver. Results from the surface program, along with ongoing data compilation and auditing, are being used in the planning of a core drilling program planned for early 2015. Redstar President and CEO Toby Mayo said, “We continue to receive encouraging results at our Unga Gold Project in Alaska, which add to our understanding of the geological system as a whole, most notably a demonstrable relationship between phreatomagmatic breccias and high-grade gold mineralization as part of a larger, district-scale epithermal-magmatic related system. This exciting development has opened up additional avenues of exploration into what could be a significantly larger system than previously thought. Furthermore, the work of re-interpreting historic core and geological data has provided us with additional insight and exploration targets which will help guide our upcoming drilling campaign for early in 2015.” The Apollo-Sitka and Shumigan Trends, both located along the southeast portion of Unga Island, are partially fault-controlled, northeast to southwest oriented semi-linear trends that transect the entirety of Unga Island. Each is more than 7,500 meters long. Areas of intense alteration, and precious and base metal vein systems define both trends.