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Nevada Copper buys almost 18% stake in Mercator Minerals
Fri 9:00 am by Brad Lemaire Nevada Copper, headquartered in Vancouver, will shell out 7.32 million of its own stock to buy 46 million shares of Mercator Minerals from Pala Investments.
Nevada Copper Corp. (TSE:NCU) has struck a deal to acquire a 17.8 per cent stake in Mercator Minerals, the company said Friday.
Nevada Copper, headquartered in Vancouver, will shell out 7.32 million of its own stock to buy 46 million shares of Mercator Minerals from Pala Investments.
Mercator Minerals owns the large tonnage copper and molybdenum Mineral Park Mine in Arizona, as well as its El Pilar copper deposit in the State of Sonora in northern Mexico.
The share purchase agreement, expected to close by October 12, is subject to some conditions and Toronto Stock Exchange approval.
Pala Investments, an insider of Nevada Copper, holds 27.38 million shares of Nevada reflecting a 37.4 per cent stake.
Following the deal's close, Pala Investments' stake will rise to 43.1 per cent, or a total of roughly 34.7 million shares.
Nevada said in a statement Friday that the shares of Mercator were acquired for "investment purposes."
Hinging on market conditions and other factors, the company said it may purchase more, or sell, shares in the open market or in private transactions.
Nevada, a junior natural resource company, owns a 100 per cent stake in the Pumpkin Hollow property, in the U.S.
Pumpkin Hollow is a large advanced stage development copper property, which boasts proven and probable mineral reserves of 4.29 billion pounds of copper, 952,000 gold ounces and 27.3 million silver ounces.
Measured and indicated resources, in the Western open pit deposits, as of September totalled 5.4 billion pounds of copper, 981,000 gold ounces and 34 million silver ounces.
In the inferred category, the resource stands at 1.4 billion pounds of copper, 219,000 ounces of gold and 9.3 million silver ounces. The company used a copper cut-off grade of 0.15 per cent.
Shares of Nevada Copper closed Thursday at $3.47 each on the TSX Venture Exchange.