FINANCE – Pretium Resources Inc. Dec. 8 reported that Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd. has agreed to make an investment that will result in Zijin owning approximately 9.9 percent of Pretium’s issued and outstanding shares. Pretium has agreed to issue to Zijin, by way of a private placement, 12,836,826 common shares at a price of C$6.30 per share for gross proceeds of about C$80.87 million. Zijin, a Shanghai and Hong Kong-listed company with extensive interests across a broad range of commodities, is the largest gold producer in China. Pretium said the offering constitutes a significant portion of the planned equity component of the financing required to bring the high-grade Brucejack gold project in northern British Columbia into production. Pretium intends to use the proceeds from the offering to fund capital expenditures, including the procurement of long-lead items and camp infrastructure. The permitting process for a 2,700-metric-ton-per-day underground mine at Brucejack is currently underway. “Zijin’s investment positions us well at a critical stage in our advance to production,” said Pretium CEO Robert Quartermain. “Zijin is a well-capitalized shareholder, and as fellow shareholders, we value their long-term outlook and commitment to gold and to the successful development of our Brucejack Project as a high-grade gold mine.” The offering is scheduled to close on or about Jan. 16, 2015, subject to regulatory approvals and approvals from the Chinese government or its relevant authorized departments. Pursuant to the subscription agreement, Zijin will be entitled to nominate one person to be appointed to the board of directors of Pretium and will have a pre-emptive right to participate in any future equity financings of Pretium to maintain its approximately 9.9 percent interest.

SILVER – Dolly Varden Silver Corp. Dec. 5 reported final results from its 2014 exploration program on the Dolly Varden project in northwestern British Columbia. The junior confirmed and advanced the property’s potential to host additional high-grade precious metal deposits; intersected 9.01 meters grading 1,496.78 grams per metric ton silver within a broader zone of 25.95 meters grading 712.19 g/t silver in hole DV14010 on the Kitsol vein; encountered continuous, pervasive intervals of highly anomalous silver in seven of the 12 drill holes (Intervals range from 33.00 to 111.80 meters in thickness with average grades of 3.1-5 g/t silver.); and identified strong, extensive multi-element geochemical anomalies within the Salmon River Formation. A total of 5,280 meters in 12 core holes were completed extending over two kilometers to the north-northwest along the main regional structural trend from the historic Torbrit Mine, the focus of 2013 drilling. A property-scale map, intersection table and geologic section of the Kitsol vein are available at www.dollyvardensilver.com. Hole DV14010 returned the best assay results of the 2014 drill program. Holes 008, 010 and 012, drilled as a “fan” from one drill pad, were designed to test at depth the surface Kitsol epithermal vein showing located 800 meters north-northwest of the historic Torbrit mine. DV14010 intersected a 25.95-meter (22.60 meters true width) brecciated, multiphase epithermal quartz vein, averaging 712.19 g/t silver, 0.5 percent lead and 0.3 percent zinc from drilled interval of 141.35 to 167.30 meters, including a higher grade intercept of 9.01 meters (7.84 meters true width), grading 1,496.78 g/t silver from 144.09 to 153.1 meters. The Kitsol vein in this hole is characterized by well-defined banding, colliform textures and pyrite replacement of barite within a broader 125.45-meter zone of highly altered (potassium, silica, sericite, pyrite) intermediate volcaniclastic rock. This envelope enclosing the high-grade vein returned an overall grade of nearly 5 g/t silver. DV14008 also intersected the Kitsol vein from 193.17 meters to 203.17 meters (8.40 meters true thickness; with 5.00 meters grading 125.40 g/t silver) within a broad vein envelope of similarly altered rocks (147.95 meters averaging nearly 5 g/t silver and 0.1 percent zinc). Hole DV14008 also intersected a silver-rich barite zone near the bottom of the hole which could represent exhalative mineralization. The third hole in the fan, DV14012 intersected the same style of alteration and mineralization as seen in the vein envelopes of holes 008 and 010 but failed to intersect significant high-grade silver veining. The Kitsol mineralization remains open along strike to the south and the north, where it trends toward the South Musketeer vein and associated soil geochemical anomalies. Further work is warranted in this structurally complex corridor that hosts several zones of high grade mineralization. At the historic Wolf deposit, the most northerly drill site in 2014 (over two kilometers north of the Torbrit mine), DV14009 intersected a section of over 100 meters of fine-grained sedimentary rock that contained an average of 5 percent bedded and/or banded pyrite. Assays from this interval returned 65 meters grading 2.6 g/t silver and 0.12 percent zinc. While this mineralization is not economic, it is highly anomalous and could represent primary conformable sulphide and silver mineralization hosted within the Salmon River Formation, which is the same host formation and depositional style as Eskay Creek. Drilling at Red Point intersected pervasive alteration and associated highly anomalous but sub-economic precious metal mineralization. DV14001 intersected stockwork mineralization at the predicted DVT horizon (which hosts high-grade mineralization at the Dolly Varden and Torbrit mines), confirming the horizon's existence up to 1 km northwest of the known deposits. The Red Point target area is within a large coincident quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration zone associated with historical soil geochemistry anomalies. Further evaluation is underway. Other 2014 field work consisted of continued detailed geological mapping, geochemical sampling (soil, silt and heavy mineral) and ground geophysical surveys. Data gained from these programs will be integrated with historic surface data and drill results to identify targets for exploration in 2015. The 2014 exploration program was the first systematic evaluation of the Dolly Varden property as a whole, focusing on the intersection of known prospective stratigraphy with altered and mineralized structures in proximity to anomalous geochemical and geophysical signatures. It has confirmed the property’s excellent potential to host additional high-grade silver mineralization (such as Torbrit and Dolly Varden deposits). The 2014 regional exploration program successfully confirmed a direct relationship between the 7.2-kilometer strike length potassium airborne anomaly and silver mineralization; defined from drilling a vast alteration system with associated elevated silver that is host to high-grade epithermal vein mineralization; and identified discrete linear silver soil geochemical trends within the potassium anomaly that will focus future exploration work. Further evaluation and interpretation of 2014 results is expected to yield priority targets for future exploration and will be announced in the future.