Battle North Gold raises $61M for mine project and exploration

A Red Lake gold mine development has received a major injection of capital.

Toronto's Battle North Gold has raised more than $61 million to bring its Bateman Mine project and continue exploration on its extensive property in the northwestern Ontario gold district.

The company announced Aug.27 it's closed a bought deal financing arrangement through an offering of common shares and flow-through shares to raise $61,368,950 to complete work on the mine development and to expand the gold resource on the property.

The net proceeds from the sale of the common shares are earmarked for pre-development and development work at Bateman (formerly known as the Phoenix Gold Project), for repayment of a loan, and for general working capital purposes.

The proceeds from the sale of the flow-through shares are used exclusively for exploration in Red Lake.

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The mining company, which recently changed its name from Rubicon Minerals, initially began the share offering on Aug. 19 at $45 million before upsizing it to $55 million.

The underground mine and its infrastructure are mostly turn-key after initial production was brought to a halt in late 2015. The company has released no information on a date to restart commercial production.

A project feasibility study, that includes an updated mineral resource and longer life of mine plan, is due out shortly.

A preliminary economic assessment posted in Aug. 2019 forecasted a mine life of 6.2 years.

Battle North Gold holds one of the largest exploration properties in the Red Lake district at more than 28,000 hectares.

Exploration drilling this year has boosted increased the measured and indicated mineral resource estimate by 21 per cent to 979,000 ounces of gold compared to the January estimate of 811,000 ounces. This will be reflected in the upcoming feasibility study.

Besides its Red Lake project, Battle North also owns a large gold exploration land package on the Long Canyon gold trend near the Nevada-Utah border.