Newmont Goldcorp increases GT Gold stake

GT Gold Corp. [GTT-TSXV; GTGDF-OTC] has released details of a new $8.3 million investment that will increase Newmont Goldcorp. Corp.‘s [NGT-TSX, NEM-NYSE] stake in the company to 14.9% from 9.9%.

The financing is a private placement of 6.9 million common shares at $1.20 per share, GT Gold said in an announcement that was released after the close of trading on November 27, 2019.

News that Newmont Goldcorp is upping its stake comes after GT Gold recently named former Goldcorp Inc. executive Paul Harbidge as the junior’s new President, CEO and director. Harbidge served as senior vice-president of exploration at Goldcorp from 2016 until its acquisition by Newmont Mining Corp. in April, 2019.

GT Gold shares advanced on the news, rising 5.5% or $0.05 to 95 cents on volume of 443,098.  The shares are trading in a 52-week range of 55 cents and $1.31.

GT Gold is focused on northwest B.C.’s Golden Triangle region. Its flagship asset is the Tatogga property, which contains a high-grade gold discovery known as the Saddle prospect. The Saddle discovery consists of two parts: a high-grade, near surface epithermal gold-silver vein system at Saddle South and, close by at Saddle North, a largely covered, porphyry copper-gold-silver mineralized system.

Back in May, 2019, GT Gold announced a $17.6 million financing and strategic investment by Newmont Goldcorp that it said would accelerate exploration and development activities at the wholly-owned Tatogga property.

The financing consisted of a $17.6 million private placement of 11.5 million flow-through common shares priced at $1.53 per share. Under the financing, Newmont Goldcorp agreed to acquire 11.5 million common shares as a back-end purchaser, leaving Newmont Goldcorp with 9.9% of GT Gold’s outstanding shares.

The agreement gave Newmont Goldcorp the right to maintain its pro-rate ownership in the company and under certain circumstances, increase its ownership up to 14.9%. The gold mining giant also has the right of first offer on the Tatogga property in the event that GT Gold seeks to divest all or part of its interest in the property.

“I am delighted that the world’s leading gold producer, Newmont Goldcorp, has increased its stake in GT Gold through this financing, which further supports the thesis that the Saddle North gold-rich copper porphyry discovery has the pedigree to become a Tier 1 asset,” Harbidge said.

“The drill results from the 2019 field season continue to delineate a project with scale, grade and bulk mining options while exploration results from within the 46,827-hectare Tatogga Project are providing a pipeline of future targets for drill testing, in what we believe to be a new porphyry district in British Columbia,” he said.

Once the new financing closes, GT Gold expects to have enough cash on hand to fund all expenditures up to and including a preliminary economic assessment, while providing a buffer for work following the PEA into 2021, to be planned based on the 2020 technical program.