Barrick Gold Buys 12.3% Stake in Hercules Silver for $23.4 million

Hercules Silver (TSXV: BIG) has done what many junior mining names only dream of. The company has secured a major investment from that of Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX).

The transaction saw Barrick invest $23.4 million in the company, taking a 12.3% stake in the process. The investment saw Barrick purchase 21.3 million units of the company at a price of $1.10 per each. Each unit contains one common share and 0.32 of a common share purchase warrant.

Each warrant has an expiry of two years and contains an exercise price of $1.32 per share.

Proceeds from the financing are to be used to explore the firms flagship Hercules property in Western Idaho.

“We’re very pleased with Barrick’s strategic investment into the Company and the support and validation it brings to the Hercules Property. We also look forward to leveraging Barrick’s US experience and technical expertise in the continued drilling and advancement of our exciting new porphyry copper discovery,” commented CEO Chris Paul.

This followed drilling news released a few days earlier:

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Hercules Silver (TSXV: BIG) this morning released further drill results from its ongoing 6,000 metre drill program at the Hercules Silver property in Idaho.

The latest results released consist of two shallow drill holes, which were drilled above the recently discovered copper porphyry. Highlights from the results include:

• HER-23-06: 58.83 metres of 96.3 g/t silver, 0.26% zinc, 3.9% manganese,
  • including 25.14 metres of 195.2 g/t silver, 0.33% zinc, 0.24% copper, and 5.9% manganese
• HER-23-07: 105.46 metres of 80.8 g/t silver, 0.30% zinc, 1.9% manganese,
  • including 41.85 metres of 138.7 g/t silver, 0.48% zinc, 0.09% copper, 3.3% manganese,
  • including 1.83 metres of 919.7 g/t silver, 0.27% zinc, 0.25% copper, and 0.2% manganese

The results are said to demonstrate that strong silver mineralization and critical mineral credits exist near surface, overlaying the blind copper porphyry system that is found at depth. Low-grade silver is said to surround the headline intercepts, setting the stage for a potential large bulk tonnage target.

“We are pleased that near-surface drilling at the Frogpond Zone continues to demonstrate favorable silver grades above our recently announced porphyry copper discovery in HER-23-05. What began as a primary drilling target for this season has now evolved into just the upper levels of a much larger system, and the presence of critical minerals adds further encouragement from a permitting standpoint in the US.,” commented Chris Paul, CEO of Hercules.

Assay results for the next deep drill hole, HER-23-08, remain pending, with the company also indicating that it has received preliminary data from a large IP survey conducted over an area of over 3,000 acres. Modeling has not yet been conducted on the data, however the company has indicated that anomalous chargeability is believed to extend from the 2022 survey conducted. Final results are expected at the end of the year.