Liberty Gold unveils $30 million bought deal
Liberty Gold Corp. [LGD-TSX] said Tuesday it is raising $30 million from a bought deal financing and will use the proceeds to fund exploration and development at its Black Pine and Goldstrike oxide gold projects in Utah.
The company said a group of underwriters has agreed to purchase, on a bought deal basis, 27.3 million Liberty common shares for $1.10 each. Liberty has granted the underwriters an option to purchase an additional 15% of the shares being sold to cover over-allotment options. That option will remain open for 30 days after the closing of the financing.
On March 7, 2022, Liberty Gold shares jumped 7.1% or $0.08 to $1.20 on volume of 483,540. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $1.83 and 84 cents.
Liberty Gold is focused on the discovery and advancement of large gold deposits that can be mine profitably in open pit scenarios. Its portfolio of projects are located in the United States and Europe. Its flagship projects are Goldstrike in southwest Utah, Black Pine in southeastern Utah, and Kinsley Mountain in southeast Elko County, Nevada. All three are past-producing open pit mines.
Proceeds of previous financings have been used to fund accelerated exploration and resource growth at the Black Pine project, a Carlin-style system, which produced 435,000 ounces of gold between 1992 and 199,7 a period of historically low gold prices. The gold was extracted from shallow pits.
According to a July, 2021 estimate, the project contains an indicated resource of 1.71 million ounces of gold and an inferred resource of 370,000 ounces. However, the estimate does not include results from any drilling in 2021.
The Discovery Zone accounts for 74% of the estimated resource ounces.
On Tuesday, the company said it plans to aggressively advance Black Pine this year with 85,000 metres of drilling, engineering and permitting program and further de-risking activities. At Goldstrike, a 25,000-metre drill program, engineering, de-risking, permitting and baseline studies are planned for this year. The aim is to continue advancing the asset towards a prefeasibility decision.
Drilling at Black Pine in 2021 had several objectives. They include step-out drilling to extend the known zones of mineralization which all remain open for expansion; resource upgrade drilling, and the testing of new target areas with the goal to define new high-grade discoveries such as the D-4 discovery in the Rangefront area (RFA).
In 2021, Liberty said it completed 28,048 metres in 74 holes in a 1.0-square kilometre area within the RFA. It said mineralization remains open for lateral extension to the north, northwest and east.
“As we continue to define the RFA, the high-grade core is growing in size while we continue to fill in gaps, with more certainty around the continuity of mineralization throughout the larger 1.0-square kilometre area,” said Liberty Gold’s Vice-President, Exploration, Moira Smith. “The RFA now rivals the Discovery Zone in size.”