Solstice Gold Corp. (TSX-V: SGC) is pleased to announce that we have executed a purchase agreement to acquire a portfolio of royalty and property interests from a group of vendors including renowned Canadian prospector and entrepreneur Perry English who has amongst other successes unrelated to this transaction vended the claims to Great Bear Resources that today comprise part of the Dixie Project in Red Lake, Ontario. This sale will be consummated through his company 1544230 Ontario Inc., along with his business partner Gravel Ridge Resources Ltd. and its principals for a cash purchase price of C$3.8 million and 400,000 common shares of Solstice. C$235,000 cash has already been paid as a deposit to the Vendors. Key highlights are summarized below:
Acquisition Details
Deal Highlights
Table 1: Cash and Share Payments due from Existing Option/Sales:
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f4c7c2f6-527e-4b4d-9e08-106dca909827
Note: Share values used are: current share price for public companies, prospectus price (where available) for private companies going public, and C$0.10 for private companies with no available price data. Excludes any potential royalty value and excludes any value for 30 currently un-optioned agreements. Table assumes all option payments are made under the option agreements.
The Portfolio comprises holdings in numerous actively explored mining districts in Canada’s Superior Geological Province and includes properties in the prolific Red Lake Gold District, as well as in highly prospective districts of the Abitibi (in both Ontario and Quebec), Uchi, Wabigoon and Wawa sub-provinces (Figure 1).
Approximately 74% of the portfolio is gold-focused although a significant percentage (23%) offers exposure to strategic metals: Copper, Lithium and Rare Earth Elements.
The Company’s rationale for the acquisition is as follows:
“We view this acquisition as transformative and highly accretive for Solstice Shareholders. This acquisition with a compelling payback and significant upside helps create in Solstice a unique blend of exposure to focused, high quality 100% owned projects, proven mine-finding ability and now exposure to a stable of other cash-flowing option agreements with potential future royalties which are being explored by third parties. I would also like to highlight the strong commitment of our board members who have agreed to exercise $1.64MM dollars worth of warrants approximately two years early to help fund this acquisition. Our market-savvy Board and Management will own 40% of issued and outstanding shares post closing of the financing. We believe that our unique project portfolio, demonstrated mine finding ability and capital markets experience combined with our strong management and board ownership position provides a compelling platform for future shareholder value accretion,” stated Chairman David Adamson.
To view the accompanying map please visit:
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/014cd7c6-8358-41db-a685-070cbedcfc9e
To view the accompanying pie chart please visit:
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/afdae116-5020-4eb2-8498-7ddd5d6d23bc
Note: Numbers may not total 100% due to rounding.
Figure 1: Project Location Map and breakdown (Ontario and Quebec) for list of projects and additional details, see:
https://www.solsticegold.com/investors/presentations/
About the Vendors.
Perry English is a successful prospector having been extensively involved in Ontario’s mineral exploration industry for over 35 years. He was honored with the Ontario Prospector Association’s Prospector of the Year Award in 2007 as well as the OPA’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. Perry has been very active with claim staking in Northwestern Ontario and has often been among the largest private claim holders in the province. He sold his portfolio of 90 mineral properties to Rubicon Minerals Corp. in 2003 which now form a significant portion of the regional landholdings of producer Evolution Mining Ltd. in Red Lake. In 2015, Perry vended claims to Great Bear Resources Ltd. which currently form part of their Dixie Lake gold discovery holdings.
Gravel Ridge Resources Ltd. is an exploration and project generation company led by President Mike Frymire and has focussed on precious metals in Ontario and Quebec over the past 14 years. Recently Gravel Ridge has generated multiple projects that are progressing to the advanced exploration stage. In 2017, Mr. Frymire was recognized with the NWOPA Discovery of the Year Award for the Bedivere Gold Project, Atikokan Ontario. Katie Misener, Vice President, has a business background and has also been part of multiple gold discoveries in northwestern Ontario, specifically the Atikokan area.
Concurrent Financing and Warrant Exercise
Completion and funding of the acquisition is subject to Solstice raising not less than C$2,000,000 in a concurrent financing for the purpose of funding the balance of the purchase price for the Portfolio. The Company proposes to raise up to C$2,500,000 pursuant to a non-brokered private placement of up to 25,000,000 common shares at a price of $0.10 per share. It is expected that one or more of the directors of the Company will participate in and subscribe for common shares in the Transaction Financing. If a Participating Director purchases common shares under the Transaction Financing, the Transaction Financing will constitute a “related party transaction” within the meaning of Policy 5.9 of the TSX Venture Exchange and Multilateral Instrument 61-101 – Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions as a result of the Participating Director being a director of the Company.
Related party transactions require a formal valuation and minority shareholder approval unless exemptions from these requirements are available. If the Transaction Financing constitutes a related party transaction, the Company expects to rely on the exemption from the formal valuation requirement in section 5.5(b) of MI 61-101 (as a result of its common shares being listed on the TSX-V) and the exemption from the minority approval requirement in section 5.7(1)(b) of MI 61-101 (as neither the fair market value of the common shares to be distributed to, nor the consideration to be paid by, the Participating Director(s) is expected to exceed C$2,500,000).
The common shares issued pursuant to the Transaction Financing will be subject to a four-month hold period in accordance with the policies of the TSX-V and applicable securities legislation. Further details in respect of the Transaction Financing will be included in a material change report to be filed by the Company. The material change report will be filed less than 21 days prior to closing of the Transaction due to the timing of the announcement of the Transaction Financing and the Company wishes to complete the Transaction Financing in an expeditious manner.
Additionally, three of our directors, Mr. Michael Gentile, Mr. Blair Schultz and Mr. Kevin Reid, have agreed to exercise prior to the closing of the acquisition and approximately 2 years early all their currently held warrants in Solstice for total proceeds of approximately C$1.64MM which will be used in conjunction with the proceeds raised from the Transaction Financing to cover the cost of this acquisition and, to the extent that proceeds from such warrant exercises exceed the cost of this acquisition, for general corporate purposes.
The Transaction Financing is subject to customary closing conditions and TSX-V approval.
For additional details, please see the Company’s corporate presentation at:
https://www.solsticegold.com/investors/presentations/
About Solstice Gold
Solstice is a gold-focussed exploration company engaged in the exploration of our high-quality exploration assets in top tier jurisdictions. Our 55 km² Red Lake Extension project along with the combined 96 km² Taillon, Moreau and Berens projects are located on the north end of the prolific Red Lake Gold District in Ontario. Our district scale KGP project covers 886 km² with certain other rights covering an adjacent 683 km², all with no underlying option or earn in payments. KGP has seen over $12MM dollars spent on significant field work, identified a 10 km² gold boulder field and now prepared with multiple drill-ready targets. KGP is located in Nunavut, Canada, only 26 km from Rankin Inlet and approximately 7 km from the Meliadine gold deposits owned by Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. Solstice has approximately 99.8 million shares outstanding.
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