ASX-listed copper and gold developer PolarX has attracted the attention of a prominent new shareholder after mega miner Northern Star Resources snapped up a 10 per cent holding in the Perth-based company following a $1.48 million investment in the operation.
PolarX has now raised $3.63 million since the end of November as it eyes future development at its Humboldt Range project in Nevada, USA.
About $735,000 of the nearly $1.5 million amount is derived from a placement of 94.2 million fully paid ordinary shares at an issue price of 0.8 cents. The roughly $725,000 balance is courtesy of placement of 90 million shortfall offer shares at an issue price of 0.8 cents apiece.
PolarX has its foot on a trio of gold and copper-laced operations based in a prolific mineralised belt in the US known as the Ring of Fire and has been working the drill bit at its more southern Humboldt Range project of late.
The asset sits in a Tier-1 mining jurisdiction and boasts a host of high-grade strikes including a 9.1m hit that ran a bonanza grade of 124 grams per tonne gold plus 49 g/t silver from 27.4m.
Notably, the company says the project’s mineralisation remains open and the scale of the bonanza-grade vein is still yet to be determined. Humboldt Range is positioned in a fruitful patch of dirt with the site neatly positioned between Argonaut Gold’s 5 million ounce Florida Canyon gold mine and the 3.5 million ounce Rochester mine in the Coeur Mining stable. Intriguingly, PolarX believes its asset shares the same geology as its neighbours.
Further north at its Stellar Property project PolarX has outlined a 3.4 million tonne inventory going 1.2 per cent copper, 2 g/t gold and 14 g/t silver at the Zackly deposit. The company is now completing metallurgical test work on Zackly-sourced ore to assess potential recovery rates and is mulling over a joint co-processing option through a mining scoping study.
At the nearby Caribou Dome deposit, PolarX has outlined a 2.8 million tonne resource going 3.1 per cent copper. According to the company, the mineralisation is open in all directions and several targets at the site still remain untested.
The three projects have seemingly displayed enough allure to capture the attention of Northern Star Resources – a major player in the global gold space and a top 10 producer of the commodity
The Australian miner is listed on the ASX with a market cap of $12 billion and is one of the more prominent fish in the pond in terms of operational scale. As an Australian developer with a market cap of just $14 million catching the goliath's eye was no small feat for PolarX.
Notably, Northern Star holds a portfolio of three significant gold operations including the 7.3 million ounce resource Pogo project in Alaska, the 9.8 million ounce Yandal project in WA and the 37 million ounce plus Kalgoorlie operation.
Only time can judge Northern Star’s decision however, given the company has a net debt to EBITDA ratio of under zero its decision to pick up a slice of PolarX’s portfolio is a ringing endorsement of the company’s projects.
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