Miners are hitting a newly opened financing market hard, as bullion's advance past $1,300 (U.S.) an ounce, and a run in other metals, have put investors in the mood to provide much-needed cash for the sector.
With precious metals stocks rising along with bullion and silver, not only is the window open, but share sales are vastly less dilutive than even a few months ago.
Canadian miners have set out to raise about $300-million in the past 24 hours. After Detour Gold Corp. unveiled a $150-million bought deal on Tuesday, three more significant financings and a handful of smaller placements have followed.
Rubicon Minerals Corp. has sold $100-million of shares in a bought deal, SilverCrest Mines Inc. lined up a deal to raise $20-million and NovaCopper is raising $20-million in a combined public and private offering that got buy-in from big investors such as Paulson & Co. and Baupost Group.
The deals will start to feed hungry brokerages that have suffered in the down market for commodity financings.
Boutiques have been hit very hard by the downturn in resource financing, and many are hanging on until the market comes back. Now, as it starts to, the biggest leading roles on these transactions this week have gone to larger banks.
BMO Nesbitt Burns and RBC Dominion Securities led the Detour deal. TD Securities and BMO led the Rubicon transaction.
Dundee Securities led the SilverCrest transaction, while RBC and Cormark Securities were the leads on NovaCopper's sale.