QMX Gold Corp. [QMX-TSXV; QMXGF-OTCQX] shares rallied in active trading Thursday January 16 after the company said it has raised over $4 million from a private placement offering with Eldorado Gold Corp. [ELD-TSX; EGO-NYSE].
In connection with the offering, QMX issued 68.1 million common shares at $0.06 per share. QMX said it intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to fund its exploration activities on its Val d’Or mining camp property in Quebec. All securities issued under the offering are subject to a statutory hold period that ends four months and one day after the date of closing.
QMX advanced on the news, rising 18.7% or $0.095 on volume of 1.15 million. The shares are trading in a 52-week range of $0.04 and 11 cents.
Eldorado now owns 68.1 million common shares of QMX, which has the backing of a shareholder group that also includes Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. [OR-TSX, NYSE] and Probe Metals Inc. [PRB-TSXV; PROBF-OTCQB]. The company is applying a systematic and methodical approach to targeting, drilling, and evaluating an extensive land package across 200 km2.
In addition to the land package, QMX owns the Aurbel gold mill and tailings facility, which is located 15 km east of Val d’Or. In October, 2018, the company said it had entered into a custom milling agreement with Gowest Gold Ltd. [GWA-TSXV; GWSAF-OTC; 1GW-FSE]. Under the agreement, QMX said the Aubel mill would be the focus of an initial pilot program involving the processing of up to 120,000 tonnes of ore from Gowest’s Bradshaw deposit for one year. QMX said Gowest pledged to fund the restart of the crushing, grinding and flotation circuits, which were winterized in mid-2016 following the termination of mining activities at the Lac Herbin Mine.
In July, 2019, QMX announced a NI 43-101-compliant resource estimate for its Bonneford South property, which is located on the eastern portion of QMX’s land package, and about 25 km east of Val d’Or and less than 25 km from the Aurbel mill. According to the estimate, the property hosts an Indicated Resource of 4.75 million tonnes at 1.69 g/t gold or 258,700 ounces. On top of that is Inferred Resources of 2.4 million tonnes at 1.87 g/t gold or 145,100 ounces.
Back in December, QMX announced the first results from a planned 6,000-metre fall drilling campaign on the Bonneford deposit. Highlights included 44.95 g/t gold over 5.6 metres and 10.7 g/t gold over 11.2 metres in an area called the Bonneford intrusive.
In connection with the $4 million offering, QMX has stuck an agreement which grants certain rights to Eldorado as long as it maintains a certain percentage ownership of shares in QMX. They include the right to appoint a member of QMX’s technical committee.
Under the agreement, if Eldorado owns more than 15% of QMX, it has the right to be represented on the QMX board of directors. If Eldorado owns more than 10% QMX, it has the right to name an observer to the QMX board. Eldorado will also have the right to participate in future equity offerings.