Sudbury’s Wallbridge Mining has raised $42,490,000 through a private offering for exploration on its Fenelon Gold Property in the Abitibi region of western Quebec.
The junior miner is in the midst of a massive drill program on its 1,052-hectare Fenelon project with intention of bringing the former mine property back into production.
In mid-November, Wallbridge had drilled 63,000 metres so far of a 70,000 to 80,000-metre drill program and had extracted a 33,500-tonne bulk sample. The company has five drill rigs on surface and two rigs below ground. In 2020, they plan to run a 100,000 to 120,000-metre program.
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"The closing of this (private placement) financing provides the company with the required financial resources to complete its planned 2020 exploration activities as we advance Fenelon towards production," said Wallbridge Mining Marz Kord in a Nov.29 press release.
The Fenelon project is located 75 kilometres northwest of Matagami, Que.
The company is developing the property near the Sunday Lake Deformation Zone, an emerging gold belt in northwestern Quebec.
Wallbridge acquired Fenelon in 2016 and has since updated the resource estimate, posted a positive pre-feasibility study, and found more gold off-shooting from the main deposit.
Last May, Wallbridge said the former open pit and underground mine is capable of producing good grades with low-cost bulk mining methods. Stope grades released by the company ranged between 10.94 grams per tonne (g/t) to 38.33 g/t.
Wallbridge has a stable of nickel, copper and platinum group metals properties in the Sudbury Basin with copper and gold exploration interests in British Columbia and Jamaica.
In Sudbury, Wallbridge has a 20 per cent ownership stake in a joint venture with Lonmin Canada to operate the mining giant’s Denison Property, a former Vale mine with some promising copper, nickel and platinum group metals (PGM) potential.
