Gold Fields bolsters Chile presence with investment in Torq Resources
The financing proceeds will be used to advance Torq's portfolio of projects in Chile, primarily the Santa Cecilia gold-copper project.
Torq Resources (TSXV: TORQ) has welcomed Gold Fields as its new strategic investor after announcing a C$15 million private placement with a wholly owned affiliate of the NYSE-listed miner. The companies have also entered into an investment agreement that entitles Gold Fields to a pre-emptive right to maintain its stake in Torq.
Pursuant to the private placement, Gold Fields will purchase 15 million common shares of Torq at a price of C$1.00 per share, which represents a 23% premium to the stock’s 20-day average trading price on the TSX Venture Exchange ending September 2, 2022. Upon closing, Gold Fields will own approximately 15.05% of Torq’s issued and outstanding shares (undiluted).
The financing proceeds will be used to advance Torq’s portfolio of projects in Chile, primarily the Santa Cecilia gold-copper project, where the company recently signed a seven-year social access agreement. The agreement covers the length of the underlying option on the project and, most importantly, will allow for drilling and other exploration activities to commence.
Shares of Torq Resources rose 3.6% by market close Tuesday, giving the junior miner a market capitalization of C$72 million.
Commenting on the investment, Gold Fields CEO Chris Griffiths said: “The investment in Torq will strengthen our presence in Chile, which is a highly prospective and stable mining destination. It further boosts our exploration efforts with two of Torq’s exploration projects to augment our Salares Norte project, which is set to come on stream next year.”
Shawn Wallace, CEO and chair of Torq Resources, added: “We are very pleased to have attracted Gold Fields as a strategic investor in Torq. An investment of this size at this early stage of exploration represents tremendous confidence in our projects, our approach and our team. This capital will primarily finance the highly anticipated maiden drill program at our flagship Santa Cecilia gold-copper project, as well as additional drilling at Margarita, where we have been working to expand upon our exciting new discovery.”
The Santa Cecilia project is located approximately 100 km east of the city of Copiapo, Chile, within the southern region of the Maricunga belt and immediately north of the El Indio belt. The belt is characterized by gold epithermal and gold-copper porphyry deposits, including multi-million-ounce deposits such as Salares Norte, La Coipa and Cerro Maricunga.
The 3,250-hectare property is immediately adjacent to the Norte Abierto project, held by Newmont and Barrick, which comprises the Caspiche and Cerro Casale gold-copper porphyry deposits. Collectively, these deposits contain proven and probable reserves of 23.2 million oz. of gold and 5.8 billion lb. of copper, and measured and indicated resources of 26.6 million oz. of gold and 6.7 billion lb. of copper.
Margarita is an iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) project located 65 km north of Copiapo. It is situated within the Coastal Cordillera belt that hosts the world-class Candelaria (Lundin Mining) and Mantoverde (Mantos Copper Holding) IOCG mines, as well as porphyry-skarn deposits such as Santo Domingo (Capstone Mining) and Inca de Oro (PanAust/Codelco).