Channel wraps final tranche; Herencia pockets £2.6 million; Baffinland to raise up to C$40 million

By LLuvia Mares

New York, Nov. 1 - The mining sector led news Thursday; among the announcements, Channel Resources Ltd. said it closed the second and final tranche of a previously announced non-brokered private placement of units, raising a total of C$1,327,500.72, with C$403,800.12 raised in this tranche.

"Given the market we ran into after we announced the financing, we knew it was going to take some time to pull together this financing," said Cyrus Amelie, company vice president of corporate affairs. "So after a certain amount was done we closed that portion of it and then continued with the finance as a second tranche."

The first tranche closed on Sept. 10 for C$923,700.60. The deal priced on July 23 for C$1.8 million.

The company sold 2,243,334 units at C$0.18 apiece in this tranche. It sold 5,131,670 units at that price in the first tranche. Originally, it planned to sell about 10 million units, but ended up with a final tally of 7,375,004 units.

Each unit consists of one common share and one warrant. Each warrant is exercisable at C$0.30 for two years. The units originally were priced at C$0.21 apiece, but the unit price was lowered on Aug. 21.

Proceeds will be used to acquire additional mineral projects, for exploration and for general corporate purposes.

The company's stock (TSX Venture: CHU) closed at on Thursday, from Tuesday's C$0.22 close. Channel is a mineral exploration company based in Vancouver, B.C.

Herencia Resources pockets £2.6 million

Herencia Resources plc also dug into some money after it announced it raised £2.6 million in a private placement of shares.

"We are very pleased with the continued support for our plans to advance the Paguanta zinc-silver-lead project," said Michael Bohm, company executive director, in a press release. "The company is now fully funded to undertake all the works currently planned for 2008."

The company sold 173,333,333 ordinary shares at 1.5p apiece.

Herencia's stock (London: HER) closed today at 1.84p, does 0.16p from Wednesday's close of 2.00p.

Proceeds will be used to advance the company's Paguanta project in northern Chile.

Based in Perth, Western Australia, Herencia Resources is a mineral exploration and development company with a focus on identifying resource opportunities in South America. It has a number of zinc-silver-lead and copper-gold project areas in northern Chile, including the Paguanta zinc-silver-lead epithermal vein system.

Baffinland to raise up to C$40 million

Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. plans to raise between C$32 million and C$40 million in a non-brokered private placement of stock.

"With the recently received advance tax ruling from the Canada Revenue Agency confirming certain bulk sample expenditures as canadian exploration expenses, we are able to issue additional flow-through shares in support of our bulk sample program," said Gordon A. McCreary, company president and chief executive officer, in a press release.

The company will sell between 6 million and 7.5 million flow-through common shares at C$5.30 per share.

Proceeds of the deal, which is expected to close Nov. 14, will be used for exploration.

Based in Toronto, Baffinland is a development-stage company engaged in mineral exploration and development.

Scorpio raises C$22 million

Scorpio Mining Corp. settled a C$22,001,000 private placement of units. The deal was announced Oct. 15 and priced for C$20 million with a C$2 million greenshoe the next day.

"All parties involved are very excited with this business combination, especially the world wide application of BacTech's bioleaching technology which is environmentally friendly and able to recover difficult metals, as already demonstrated though use of the technology in China and Mexico," said Peter J. Hawley, company chairman and chief executive office, in a press release.

"During my recent travels I was quite surprised at the interest and support the European financial community expressed concerning the usage of the BacTech technology combined with the track record of Scorpio as an aggressive, fast moving mining company.

The company sold 15,715,000 units of one share and one quarter-share warrant at C$1.40 per unit. Each whole warrant will be exercisable at C$1.85 for three years.

The deal was conducted by a syndicate of agents, led by CIBC World Markets Inc. and including Blackmont Capital Inc.

The company's stock (Toronto: SPM) closed at C$1.4677 on Nov. 1 and has not seen much activity since Wednesday.

Proceeds will be used for exploration and development on the company's Nuestra Senora silver project in Mexico and for general corporate purposes.

"We will aggressively pursue not only start up operations with gold credits but look at the usages of the technology in countries that have serious environmental concerns," said Hawley, in the release.

"In that Scorpio Mining will be the majority shareholder of the merged company, it is expected that its expertise and knowledge in México will be advantageous to allow the new company to be able to exploit its cutting edge technology in that country and elsewhere."

Scorpio is a mineral exploration company based in Vancouver, B.C.

China Precision to raise $47.9 million

In other news, China Precision Steel announced today it plans to raise a $47.9 million private placement of stock.

The company entered into a subscription agreement with a group of institutional investors to issue 7.1 million shares at $6.75 each and warrants to purchase 1.4 million shares at an exercise price of $8.45 each. The warrants expire in five-years and can be exercised any time after May 6, 2008.

The deal is scheduled to close on Nov. 6.

The company's stock (Nasdaq: CPSL) closed at $6.45 on Thursday, down $2.00 from Wednesday's close of $8.45.

Roth Capital Partners, LLC was the placement agent in this transaction.

Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes and to repay existing bank debt.

Shanhghi, China-based China Precision Steel is a precision steel processing company that specializes in cold-rolled steel products and services.

Prana closes A$8 million tranche

In the medical sector, Prana Biotechnology Ltd. announced it has closed an A$8 million tranche of a A$10 million private placement of stock. The deal priced on Sept. 12 with firm commitments for A$7 million.

"We are pleased to receive such tremendous support from our shareholder base and continued recognition of PBT2's potential," said Geoffrey Kempler, company chairman and chief executive officer, in a press release.

"We will use these funds to progress PBT2, which is currently in a Phase 2A trial in patients with Alzheimer's disease. We recently achieved a significant milestone with the completion of enrollment for the trial and are on track to release results in the first quarter of 2008."

The company sold approximately 28.07 million shares at A$0.285 per share.

The company also has shareholder approval to raise up to A$10 million in shares with two for six attaching options, which includes this A$8 million already raised.

As previously reported, the two attaching options, which will expire on Oct. 31 and Nov. 30, 2010 respectively, will be exercisable at A$0.37 cents and A$0.43 cents respectively.

Prana's stock (Australia: PBT Geoffrey Kempler) closed at A$2.86 on Thursday and has not seen any activity since it last closed on Oct. 30.

New York based Brimberg & Co. assisted with the placement.

Proceeds will be predominantly used for the ongoing development of Prana's lead compound, PBT2, currently in a Phase 2A trial in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Genus plans £19.4 million

Genus plc said it will raise £19.4 million in a private placement of shares.

"We are very pleased with the successful placing which has been favorably received by institutions. These additional funds reduce Genus' net debt to below £100 million, resulting in reduced interest costs on the remaining debt," said Richard Wood, company chief executive officer, in a press release.

"We are now well placed to manage the disposal programmed of the non-core assets on a controlled basis, ensuring best value for Genus and our shareholders. The result will be a company operating with improved efficiencies both structurally and financially."

The company will sell 2.7 million ordinary shares at 720p apiece.

Genus' stock (London: GNS) closed at 750.50p, up 45.50p from Thursday's last close at $705.00.

Proceeds will be used to reduce debt and provide additional financial flexibility for the management team to run the business.

Based in Basingstoke, England, Genus uses quantitative genetics and biotechnology for animal breeding in the bovine and porcine sectors, provides advice to farmers and international policy makers and markets licensed pharmaceutical products to veterinary surgeons.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.