Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE: AEM) (TSX: AEM) has raised its stake in Maple Gold Mines (TSXV: MGM) after buying roughly 33.82 million shares under a private placement. The purchase price was set at C$0.12 per share for gross proceeds of C$4.05 million, as announced by Maple last week.
By market close Monday, Maple Gold Mines traded at C$0.08 apiece, its highest year-to-date, for a market capitalization of C$27.3 million.
Prior to placement, Agnico held approximately 40.85 million or 11.97% of Maple’s issued stock. It now owns 19.99% on a non-diluted basis.
The placement was set up as part of the companies’ agreement last week to end their joint venture in Québec, with Agnico transferring the Douay and Joutel properties to Maple in exchange for a future purchase option on these assets should certain development milestones be achieved.
The net proceeds are intended for exploration on the two properties, both located along the Casa Berardi-Douay gold trend, a structure within the prolific Abitibi greenstone belt known to host world-class gold deposits such as Beattie and the Canadian Malartic.
At the time, Maple Gold’s CEO Kiran Patankar called the JV restructuring a “transformative, value-unlocking transaction” that resulted from teamwork between the companies, and it represents a “win-win for both parties” for the continued advancement of the two projects.
Douay is a district-scale 357 km2 property with an established mineral resource of 10 million tonnes grading 1.59 g/t gold for 511,000 contained ounces in the indicated category and 76.7 million tonnes grading 1.02 g/t gold for 2.53 million contained ounces in the inferred category.
The Joutel project, located south of the Douay property is host to Agnico’s past-producing mine complex, with total historical gold production of 1.1 million oz. at an average grade of 6.5 g/t gold from 1974 to 1993.
“With our balance sheet strengthened and our planned 2024 exploration programs now fully financed, we are excited to follow up on the significant resource expansion and discovery potential across our district-scale gold projects in Québec,” Patankar stated in Monday’s news release.
