Article on Stock-Head Ardiden is filling its coffers ahead of...

Article on Stock-Head

Ardiden is filling its coffers ahead of gold drilling rush in Canada



Special Report: Ardiden (ASX:ADV) is raising up $4.5m to fund its systematic exploration program at its highly prospective Pickle Lake Gold Project in Ontario, Canada.

The company has already received firm commitments from International and Australian institutional and sophisticated investors for a $3.5m share placement priced at 1.2c per shares.

This represents a 1.55 per cent discount to the 10-day volume weighted average price and a 33.3 per cent discount to its last traded price of 1.8c on 10 July.

Additionally, the company will accept transfers of up to 88 million shares through the set-off of the collateral shares previously issued under the controlled placement in December, to raise up to an additional $1m.

Its directors plan to subscribe for $100,000 worth of shares in the placement subject to shareholder approval.

“This is a significant milestone for Ardiden as it will now be able to properly explore its massive, continuous landholding at Pickle Lake,” managing director Rob Longley said.

“This funding will re-shape our current summer drilling programme at the Kasagiminnis Gold Deposit and expand options for drilling at Kasagiminnis and our other Gold Deposits and Prospects at the Pickle Lake Gold Project.

“Investors who have witnessed the success of Great Bear Resources (TSX-V-GBR) at the Dixie Gold Project nearby, recognise the opportunities that exist in this under-explored Uchi Geological Subdivision of north-western Ontario”.

Gold exploration in ‘elephant’ country

While Ardiden’s 664sqkm landholding in the Pickle Lake region is largely unexplored, the project is comparable in size and geology to Evolution’s producing 30-million-ounce Red Lake gold district, right next door.

Its ground is also next to Auteco Minerals (ASX:AUT), which has seen its share price skyrocket after defining a 830,000oz at 11.6 g/t gold resource at their earn-in of First Mining Gold’s (TSX:FF) Pickle Crow project late last month.

The company has already identified its advanced Kasagiminnis resource as the initial target of its upcoming drill program.

This program will test an exploration target of between 500,000oz and 1.2moz at the Deposit, where previous drilling returned thick, shallow intercepts like 21m grading 3.97 grams per tonne (g/t), 67m from surface.

Kasagiminnis currently has a resource of 790,000 tonnes grading 4.3g/t for 110,000 ounces of gold estimated over a length of only 600m and a maximum depth of 280m, a small footprint compared to the size of other projects in the region.

Additionally, the company has identified 19 other deposit and prospect areas to progress systematically.

These include two high-grade gold deposits called ‘Dorothy’ and ‘Dobie’ – less than 40km from Kasagiminnisand are connected by Ardiden-owned tenements.