Group Eleven Resources Corp. [ZNG-TSXV; GRLVF-OTC; 3GE-FSE] said it has arranged a $1 million non-brokered private placement and shareholders rights agreement with Glencore Canada Corp., a unit of the Swiss commodities trading giant Glencore AG.
In recent years, Group Eleven has assembled a large property position in southwestern Ireland, consisting of 99 prospecting licenses covering 3,200 km2 across four project areas. The properties are located within the established Irish Zinc District, which has been a source of zinc production since the 1960s and is currently home to some of Europe’s largest zinc projects, including the Navan (Tara) Zinc-lead mine (Boliden), the Pallas Green deposit (Glencore) and the past producing Lisheen (Vendanta) and Galmoy mines (Lundin Mining).
The shareholders rights agreement covers Group Eleven’s Irish zinc projects, while the offering consists of 8.4 million units priced at 12 cents each, leaving Glencore with an 11.8% stake in Group Eleven. Each unit consists of one common share and one half of a non-transferrable common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional share of Group Eleven for 24 cents a share for 36 months from the date of issue.
Glencore is the owner of the Pallas Green project, which lies adjacent to Group Eleven’s Stonepark zinc project. Pallas Green is one of the world’s largest undeveloped zinc deposits. It hosts an inferred resource of 45.1 million tonnes of 7% zinc and 1% lead. Stonepark hosts an inferred resource of 5.1 million tonnes, grading 8.7% zinc and 2.6% lead.
Under the shareholders rights agreement, as long as Glencore’s equity ownership remains above 10%, the Swiss company can add one member to Group Eleven’s board of directors. It can also participate in any future Group Eleven financings, and have a representative on the junior’s technical committee.
Meanwhile, Glencore has received off-take rights, to be priced and negotiated on market terms, on Group Eleven’s pro-rata share of all its zinc projects in Ireland.
They include the 60%-owned Ballinalack project (joint ventured with Shenzhen Zhongjin Nonfemet Company Ltd., a China-based mining and processing company, representing one of the largest zinc producers in the world), which is located in northeast Ireland, and the 75.5%-owned Stonepark project (joint ventured with Arkle Resources Plc) near Limerick.
“We are excited to have Glencore joint our group of strategic shareholders,” said Group Eleven CEO Bart Jaworski. “Glencore’s extensive experience in Ireland, especially at the Pallas Green zinc project, will provide an important dimension to Group Eleven’s ‘Big Think’ strategy and should significantly enhance drill target definition and subsequent testing at Stonepark, Ballinalack and our other zinc projects,” he said. “This cooperation ought to greatly aid our efforts to further grow shareholder value.”
Group Eleven shares, which were trading at $0.04 on October 10, jumped to $0.07 on October, 15, 2019. On Wednesday, the shares were unchanged at $0.06 and are currently trading in a 52-week range of $0.04 and 17.5 cents.
Group Eleven is among a number of Irish explorers who have been using new techniques to help in the search for new discoveries.
Back in January 2018, the company tabled results from an initial re-interpretation of exiting seismic data at the Ballinalack project.
The study led to a new interpretation of the regional structure of the Ballinalack property, specifically in the vicinity of the historical estimate (7.7 million tonnes, grading 7.3% zinc plus lead), which the company is not treating as a resource.
Jaworski said the study could add high-priority drill targets which would complement Group Eleven’s suite of known targets along strike and at depth from the historical estimate.