AGI - Alamos Gold Announces Acquisition of Orford Mining Including the Qiqavik Gold Project | Benzinga
TORONTO, Jan. 15, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alamos Gold Inc. (TSX:AGI, NYSE:AGI) ("Alamos" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive agreement (the "Agreement") pursuant to which Alamos will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Orford Mining Corporation (TSXV:ORM) ("Orford") by way of a court-approved plan of arrangement (the "Transaction"). The acquisition will consolidate Alamos' existing ownership of Orford shares through which the Company will add the highly prospective Qiqavik Gold Project, located in Quebec, Canada. Alamos will also be acquiring interests in several exploration stage critical mineral and gold projects in Quebec, including West Raglan, the Joutel Properties, and Nunavik Lithium.
Under the terms of the Agreement, Orford shareholders will receive 0.005588 of an Alamos common share for each Orford share. This represents a value of C$0.10 per Orford share, based on the 20-day volume weighted average trading price of Alamos' shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange immediately preceding January 15, 2024. Alamos currently owns 61,660,902 Orford shares, representing approximately 27.5% of Orford's basic common shares outstanding. Excluding Alamos' existing ownership of Orford, Alamos expects to issue approximately 0.9 million shares for total consideration of C$16 million.
"Our acquisition of Orford is consistent with our strategy of building out a pipeline of high-quality, long-term projects, in good jurisdictions, to complement our near-term organic growth projects in Canada. Qiqavik fits that strategy perfectly as an attractive early-stage gold project, located in one of top mining jurisdictions in the world. We see excellent long-term potential within the underexplored Qiqavik district and look forward to building off Orford's success with a larger and sustained exploration program," said John A. McCluskey, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Qiqavik Gold Project
The 100% owned Qiqavik Gold Project is a camp scale property covering 438 square kilometres ("km2) in the Cape Smith Belt in Nunavik, Quebec. The Qiqavik Property covers the 40 km long Qiqavik Break, a major crustal-scale structure controlling gold mineralization on the belt. Early-stage exploration completed to date indicates that high-grade gold occurrences are controlled by structural splays off the Qiqavik Break, which extends along strike over the 40 km length of the project.
Orford commenced exploration on the project in 2016, and since that time has identified over 40 highly prospective targets across the previously underexplored property through mapping, prospecting, till sampling, geophysics, and limited drilling.
These targets include several high-grade boulder and gold grain-in-till trends, as well as outcrop gold showings across the property. In addition, a significant 4 km wide by 3 km long gold geochemical dispersal train has been identified in till down-ice (NE) from a segment of the Qiqavik break, or a related secondary structure, in the central portion of the Qiqavik project area which has not yet been drill tested.
The Cape Smith Belt is Paleoproterozoic (1.8-1.9 billion years in age), which is consistent with, and has undergone similar geological/tectonic evolution as other significant gold belts globally including the Trans-Hudson in Canada, the Ashanti Gold Fields in West Africa, the Tapajos-Parima Belt in Brazil, and the Tanami Region in Australia.
As supported by the exploration completed to date, and given the scale of the property, Qiqavik has ...