TORONTO, April 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Noront Resources Ltd. (“Noront” or the “Company”) (TSX Venture:NOT) today provided a corporate update and closed a private placement of flow-through shares.
Road Development Last August, the province announced funding and support for two First Nation led access road proposals linking the Ring of Fire and their communities to the provincial highway system. Since that time Noront has provided support to the proponent communities for the access roads in order to expedite the permitting process. The Company has made environmental assessment and engineering studies available and met with community groups to provide expertise and organizational input. The provincial government has assembled a team representing four ministries which is providing support and guidance.
Upgrades to existing roads are ongoing and environmental fieldwork which has taken place since earlier this year should culminate in the filing of project descriptions by mid-year. Government timelines estimate shovels will be in the ground in 2019.
The Company was also pleased to see the $1 billion previously allocated by the provincial government to infrastructure spending in the Ring of Fire was present in the province’s recently announced 2018 budget.
Exploration Update Noront will continue its copper-zinc focused exploration program in the second half of 2018 with ground geophysical surveying and targeted drilling at the Company’s McFaulds and Butler VMS properties.
The McFaulds program objective is to generate drill targets using ground electromagnetic (EM) systems and to continue testing the strike and dip continuity of the newly discovered McFaulds No. 8 and No. 9 sulphide lenses. At Butler, recent soil surveying identified highly anomalous copper-zinc-silver associated with EM targets between the No. 3 and No. 4 occurrences.
Flow-through Private Placement To finance the upcoming year of exploration work, Noront closed a private placement of 10,000,000 flow-through common shares today at a price of $0.42 per flow-through share for gross proceeds of $4.2 million (the “Offering”).
These shares will be “flow-through” shares pursuant to the Income Tax Act (Canada). The flow-through shares are subject to a statutory hold period of four months plus one day which will expire on August 10, 2018.
In connection with the Offering, EMD Financial Inc. received a cash finder’s fee equal to 5% of the gross proceeds up to $1.3 million, a finder’s fee, paid in shares, of 6% of the gross proceeds in excess of $2.5 million to a maximum of $4.0 million and a corporate finance fee of $10,750. There were 414,081 common shares issued at a price of $0.37 per common share in satisfaction of the share component of the finder’s fee. The common shares are subject to a statutory hold period of four months plus one day which will expire on August 10, 2018.
Marten Falls First Nation Shares The Company would also like to announce the issuance of 311,111 common shares to Marten Falls First Nation. These shares are part of an exploration and pre-development agreement with our First Nation partner announced on April 13, 2017. The common shares are subject to a statutory hold period of four months plus one day which will expire on August 10, 2018.
RCF Interest Payment The Company also announces that payment of interest in the amount of $387,000 for the first quarter of 2018 pursuant to the Convertible Debenture has been satisfied by delivery of 1,022,457 common shares of the Company (the “Interest Shares”) at an effective price of $0.3785 per Interest Share. The Interest Shares are subject to a four month hold period, expiring on August 11, 2018.
About Noront Resources Noront Resources Ltd. is focused on the development of its high-grade Eagle’s Nest nickel, copper, platinum and palladium deposit and the world class chromite deposits including Blackbird, Black Thor, and Big Daddy, all of which are located in the James Bay Lowlands of Ontario in an emerging metals camp known as the Ring of Fire. www.norontresources.com
Ryan Weston, Noront Vice President, Exploration M.Sc., MBA, P.Geo and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI-43-101”) has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this press release.
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