TerraX Minerals Inc. Dec. 27 announced it has raised C$5 million for the continued exploration at its Yellowknife City Gold Project (YCGP) in Northwest Territories.

YCGP encompasses 783 square kilometers (302 square miles) of gold prospective land immediately north, south and east of Yellowknife, the Northwest Territories capital.

In November, TerraX announced a maiden resource estimate for YCGP that comprises 735,000 ounces of gold.

Three deposits at YCGP – Crestaurum, Mispickel and Sam Otto – host 11.62 million metric tons of open-pittable inferred resource averaging 1.4 grams per metric ton (523,000 oz) gold.

Additionally, four deposits – Crestaurum, Barney, Mispickel and Sam Otto – host 1.15 million metric tons of underground inferred resource averaging 5.7 g/t (212,000 oz) gold.

All these deposits are found within a 3,000-meter radius.

"This first mineral resource for the Yellowknife City Gold Project is a major milestone in the project development," TerraX Minerals Executive Chairman Gerald Panneton said at the time. "To date, drilling has barely scratched the surface of the property and already we are having exploration success at Sam Otto and Crestaurum, and elsewhere."

In order to continue to expand and upgrade the inaugural YCGP resource, TerraX raised C$5 million through the sale of 20 million shares at C25 cents each.

BMO Capital Markets, the underwriter for this private placement financing, received a cash commission equal to 6 percent of the gross proceeds of the offering.

BMO has the option to purchase up to 2 million additional TerraX shares over the next 30 days to cover over-allotments, if any.

In addition to the brokered financing, TerraX raised an additional C$80,000 through a non-brokered private placement that involved the issuance of 320,000 common shares at a price of C25 cents each.

The net proceeds of this financing will be used to advance exploration at YCGP, working capital, and for general corporate purposes.

Much of the focus of the 2020 exploration at YCGP is expected to be on the Sam Otto and Crestaurum deposit areas north of Yellowknife.

Hosting 10.79 million metric tons of open-pittable inferred resource averaging 1.23 g/t (426,000 oz) gold, Sam Otto is by far the largest of the three surface deposits outlined so far at YCGP.

The shear-hosted gold mineralization at Sam Otto has been defined over a strike length of 4,500 meters and remains open along the north-south strike and to depth.

The Crestaurum deposit, situated about 3,000 meters southwest of Sam Otto, hosts 127,000 metric tons of open-pittable inferred resource averaging 9.41 g/t (38,000 oz) gold.

The outcropping Crestaurum deposit, and the high-grade gold mineralization found there, has been modeled for a shallow starter pit before moving potentially into an underground operation. The underground deposit currently stands at 723,000 metric tons of inferred resource averaging 6.56 g/t (153,000 oz) gold. Both the surface and underground deposits at Crestaurum remain open in multiple directions.

TerraX said the current lack of drilling in many areas of Sam Otto has put a limit on the initial mineral resources within the currently envisioned open-pit areas, which the company plans to begin to address with a drill program slated to begin in the first quarter.

Early 2020 drilling at Crestaurum will focus on tracing this deposit deeper, as well as infill drilling to increase the confidence level of the high-grade gold resource already outlined to the indicated category.

TerraX Minerals Inc.

–SHANE LASLEY