B2Gold backs Founders Metals with $12.1M investment for drilling at Antino in Suriname

Founders Metals' Antino gold project is located in southeastern Suriname near the border with French Guiana.

Founders Metals (TSXV: FDR; US-OTC: FDMIF) has drawn a $12.1 million investment from B2Gold (TSX: BTO; NYSE: BTG), bringing to $32.1 million the total raised in the Suriname-focused gold explorer over the last two days. Founders shares gained 4.7%.

Under the investment, B2Gold is to buy 4.4 million shares at $2.75 each, giving the company a 9.9% stake in Founders as well as rights on technical assistance for its Antino project, the companies announced on Friday.

“We look forward to drawing on B2Gold’s experience in exploring for, and developing, world-class mining assets in similar geological environments,” Colin Padget, Founders’ president and CEO, said in a release. “This broader financing package leaves Founders well positioned to ramp up exploration at Antino, fully funding our planned 2025 exploration budget and the near-term addition of a fourth diamond drill.”

Clive Johnson, B2Gold CEO and president, said the deal is in line with the company’s strategy of investing early in discoveries with Tier one potential. B2Gold holds the feasibility-stage Goose project in Nunavut, as well as the Fekola mine complex in Mali, where last month it reached a new regulatory deal with Mali’s military government for the complex.

“The rigorous exploration efforts undertaken by Founders’ technical and management team have clearly highlighted the district-scale potential of the Antino Gold Project,” he said.

The B2Gold investment adds to the $20-million private placement from a syndicate of underwriters led by BMO Capital Markets announced on Thursday. The funders are to buy 6.25 million shares of Founders for $2.40 each.

Founders’ shares traded for $2.88 apiece on Friday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at $212 million. Its shares traded in a 52-week range of 76¢ to $3.13.

Boosting Founders’ team

The investments follow the appointment of Chris Taylor as an independent director to Founders’ board, announced on Oct. 1. Taylor, who was the founder, president and CEO of Great Bear Resources, led its district-scale gold discovery in the Red Lake region of northern Ontario and subsequent buyout. Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) acquired it for $1.8-billion. Taylor was also named The Northern Miner’s Mining Person of the Year in 2021.

The investments will be used to fund the Antino project in southeastern Suriname, where this year Founders has targeted 30,000 metres of drilling that have confirmed the strength of various targets. The 238-sq.-km Antino sits just across the Lawa River from French Guiana and is the South American country’s most advanced project on a property that’s produced 500,000 oz. of artisanal gold historically.

The Vancouver-headquartered company plans to release an initial resource for Antino next year as it seeks to rival Newmont’s (TSX: NGT) Merian and Zijin Mining’s Rosebel gold mines that sit on the Guiana Shield in Suriname.