David Garofalo-led fund takes stake in Radisson

The Marshall Precious Metals Fund, managed and led by chairman and CEO David Garofalo, with funds from Chinese state-owned Zhaojin Mining, has taken a 3.8% interest in Radisson Mining Resources (TSXV: RDS; US-OTC: RMRDF) through a non-brokered private placement.

The precious metals fund that is focused on investing in early-stage exploration juniors is acquiring 2.5 million common class A shares of Radisson priced at 20¢ per share and around 2.8 million charity flow-through shares at 36¢ per share, for total proceeds of $1.5 million.

Garofalo has worked for thirty years in the mining industry and previously served as the president and CEO of Goldcorp between 2016 and 2019 until its US$10 billion merger with Newmont Mining (TSX: NGT; NYSE: NEM). Prior to his stint at Goldcorp, Garofalo was president and CEO of Hudbay Minerals (TSX: HBM; NYSE: HBM) (2010-1015) and before that served as senior vice president finance and CFO of Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM) (1998-2010).

“Our first contact with David was at PDAC back in March,” Mario Bouchard, Radisson’s president and CEO, said in an interview. “Following PDAC, we had a few more discussions, and then last week we decided to undertake the placement.”

Even before the placement, Radisson had enough funds to undertake their work program for the year, Bouchard added.

“We already have around $6.6 million in cash but opening the small placement with David was a strategic decision, as he brings more than 30 years of experience in developing high-grade, world-class deposits to the company and has extensive experience in Quebec,” Bouchard said.

The company recently resumed drilling at its wholly owned flagship O’Brien project, located half-way between Rouyn-Noranda and Val-d’Or along the world-renowned Larder-Lake-Cadillac fault in Quebec.

Drilling at the 6.4-sq.-km advanced-stage project was suspended on March 15 due to the COVID-19 outbreak and resumed on May 11, Bouchard said.

“Drilling started in August 2019, and we managed to complete around 28,000 metres of a 60,000-metre drill program before operations were suspended,” Hubert Parent-Bouchard, the company’s director of corporate development, said in the same interview.

Highlights from the program include drill hole 19-106, which intersected 2 metres grading 14.30 grams gold per tonne and 2 metres grading 22.17 grams gold starting from 175 metres downhole.

The company, Parent-Bouchard said, plans to use a portion of the funding from the private placement to expand the known resources along strike and at depth, and hopes to complete the remaining 32,000 metres of the drill program by the end of the year.

The project contains indicated resources of 950,000 tonnes grading 9.48 grams gold for 289,000 contained oz. gold and inferred resources of 617,000 tonnes grading 7.31 grams gold for 145,000 ounces.

At press time in Toronto, Radisson was trading at 25¢ per share within a 52-week trading range of 9¢ and 27¢.

The company has 190 million common shares outstanding for a $47.51-million market capitalization.