IPG raises $3 million for Quebec scandium project
Imperial Mining Group Ltd. [IPG-TSXV, IMPNF-OTCQB] said Friday it has raised $3 million from a non-brokered private placement offering with proceeds destined for the advancement of its Crater Lake scandium-rare earth project in Quebec.
The private placement offering consisted of 14.6 million flow-through shares priced at 20.5 cents each, marking a 46.4% premium on the company’s current share.
On Friday the shares were unchanged at 14 cents and currently trade in a 52-week range of 23.5 cents and $0.09.
Imperial Mining is a multi-metal exploration and deposit development company. It was formed by the roll-in of the Quebec gold and copper zinc properties of NQ Exploration Inc. [NQE-TSXV] with the technology metals project (scandium, niobium, tantalum, rare earths) of Peak Mining Corp.
The Crater Lake project is located 200 kilometres northeast of Schefferville, Que., and is accessible via fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter. The property consists of 57 contiguous claims covering 27.8 square kilometres and is owned 100% by Imperial Mining Group.
In a news release in September, 2021, Imperial Mining announced that it had received results of an inaugural 43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate for the TG Scandium-Rare-Earth Zone at Crater Lake. It said the Northern Lobe of the TG Scandium Zone contains in indicated resource of 7.3 million tonnes grade 282 g/t Sc2O3 and an inferred resource of 13.2 million tonnes, grading 262 g/t Sc2O3.
The company said the mineral resource estimate is pit constrained with a bedrock slope angle of 45 degrees and an overburden slope angle of 30 degrees. Imperial President and CEO Peter Cashin said the resource estimate far exceeded the minimum threshold resource that the company had internally set for a 20-25-year notional mining operation, or 10 million tonnes.
Using a net smelter return cut-off value of $110.80 per tonne, the value of the mineralization was determined to range between $386 and $413 per tonne. The dimensions of the zone above the NSR cut-off were 300 metres in strike length to a vertical depth of 200 metres.
On Friday, the company said proceeds of the private placement will be used to complete exploration drilling at Crater Lake scandium-rare earth mineralized targets, convert the existing TG zone inferred resource to the indicated category, optimize the recently patented metallurgical recovery flow sheet for the project and for other corporate purposes.
The company said an 18-tonne bulk sample collected earlier this summer will ultimately be used for input in a planned scandium recovery pilot plant later in 2022.
Imperial recently said it has partnered with Investment Quebec and Baie-Comeau Regional Industrial Development Agency to undertake a comprehensive scandium market study. It said the study will look at the benefits of establishing a North American supply of scandium and scandium-aluminum alloys products and determine the industrial and technological development impacts on the Baie-Comeau region, in general, and the Quebec aluminum industry in particular.