Taseko sets C$8 million PIPE in C$45 million deal; SLAM plans C$1.5 million; Prominex to sell C$1.1 million

By LLuvia Mares

New York, Oct. 10 - A surge of oil and mining deals ripped through the PIPEs market Wednesday. According to a market analyst, this gush of deals will continue to flow throughout the week.

"Good commodity prices leading to strong demand," said one market source, regarding the booming oil and mining sector.

Taseko Mines Ltd. led PIPEs news after announcing its plan to bring a C$8 million private placement as part of a total C$45 million share financing.

The company is currently producing copper "and we unhedge production. We also have record pricing in the market right now," said Brian Bergot, company manager of investor relations, in an interview with Prospect News.

"The fundamentals for the copper market have continued to be strong for quite sometime. We are going through an expansion at our operating mine which we will see double our production in the next four months and we don't believe that has factored into our stock price yet."

The company entered into an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters led by Raymond James Ltd. and including Paradigm Capital Inc. and Canaccord Adams for a C$37,000,002 public sale of stock. The company will sell 7,115,385 common shares at C$5.20 apiece. The underwriters have a greenshoe for 15%.

There is also a C$8 million non-brokered private placement of shares planned that includes 1.5 million shares at C$5.20 each.

Taseko's stock (Toronto: TKO) closed at C$5.96 Wednesday, up C$0.01 from Tuesday.

Net proceeds from the placements will be used for growth opportunities, working capital, and general corporate purposes.

Bergot said the company attempted to close on an acquisition earlier in the year, however they were unsuccessful.

"We have definitely stated that we want to go through developing our own assets and also through acquisition," he said.

Based in Vancouver, B.C., Taseko is a mineral and metals exploration and production company.

SLAM plans C$1.5 million

SLAM Exploration Ltd. said it has negotiated a non-brokered private placement of units to raise C$1.5 million.

The company will sell 6 million units of one flow-through common share and one half-share warrant at C$0.25 per unit. Each whole warrant will be exercisable for one non-flow-through common share at C$0.50 for two years.

SLAM's stock (TSX Venture: SXL) closed at C$0.18 on Wednesday but has not seen activity since Tuesday's close.

"We didn't really need the money because we have $2.3 million in the bank already and $600,000 of that is hard dollars, but the institutions came to us and wanted to partake in the upside of the stock," said Bob Smylie, company's investor relations director. "We said we weren't really interested in doing a financing here but they said what about a premium for the stock price and we went with it that."

Proceeds will be used for drilling.

"We don't plan on any acquisitions at this point but we are not ruling anything out. We want to get our gold properties in Ontario active. These are very respectful gold projects and we plan on getting a drill up there as soon as we can," said Smylie.

SLAM is a mineral resource company based in Miramichi, New Brunswick.

Prominex negotiates C$1.1 million

Prominex Resource Corp. said it plans a non-brokered private placement of units to raise up to C$1.1 million.

"It's was a way for the company to raise some capital and a way to carry out its future plans. A private placement was a lot cheaper than doing it through other methods," said Lorne King, company president and chief executive officer.

The company will sell 11 million units of one share and one warrant at C$0.10 per unit.

The company's stock (TSX Venture: PXR) closed at C$0.12 Wednesday but has not seen activity since its close on Tuesday.

Each whole warrant will be exercisable at C$0.13 for 18 months.

Proceeds will be used for general working capital purposes.

Prominex is a resource exploration company based in Vancouver, B.C.

Magnus amends private placement

Magnus Energy Inc. dug its way into amending the terms of a private placement of shares to raise up to C$9.3 million. The deal priced on July 19 and was downsized to C$6 million on Aug. 22.

The company now will sell 83,333,333 flow-through class A shares at C$0.036 per share and 210,000,000 non-flow-through class A shares at C$0.03 apiece.

As previously reported, the placement, slated to close Oct. 31, will satisfy a financing requirement for the planned merger of Magnus and Questerre Energy Corp.

The shares have a four-month hold period.

Dundee Securities Corp. will be paid an advisory fee of 2%, which will be paid in 13,492,927 class A shares at C$0.013785 per share, or C$186,000.

Proceeds will be used for a farm-in agreement on the Beaver River properties of a subsidiary of Questerre Energy.

Magnus is an oil and natural gas exploration company based in Calgary, Alta.

Petrolia sells C$3 million in first tranche

Petrolia announced it has completed the first closing of a C$9 million private placement of units, raising C$3 million.

"This first closing confirms the interest of international explorers in the potential of Quebec's large and underexplored Appalachian region as an emerging hydrocarbon producer. The funds from the first closing will allow the Corporation to put into initial production the Haldimand well discovered by Petrolia in 2006 near of Gaspe," said Andre Proulx, company president, in a press release.

"This discovery will generate cash flow and could be a precursor to additional discoveries at Haldimand and in nearby structures. Given that Petrolia holds exploratory rights over a territory of 10,000 square Km in the Gaspe Peninsula, accounting for 13% of all exploratory interests of the province of Quebec, all discoveries and exploratory undertakings within this 10,000 square Km-territory will need to be subject to agreements with Petrolia."

Each unit consists of one common share and one warrant, which is exercisable at C$1.00 for 18 months. In the first tranche, Petrolia sold 3 million units to Pilatus Energy.

Petrolia's stock (TSX Venture: PEA) closed at C$0.53, up C$0.09 from Tuesday's close C$0.435.

Petrolia is an oil and gas company based in Rimouski, Quebec.

MacroChem wraps $3.5 million

MacroChem Corp. announced it closed a $3.5 million private placement and converted series C preferred stock.

The company sold 5,891,667shares of stock and warrants to purchase 1,767,500 shares of stock at an exercise price of $0.60 per share. The warrants expire in five years.

"We're pleased with the support and confidence of our shareholders and new investors participating in this transaction," said Robert J. DeLuccia, president and chief executive officer, in a press release.

"We believe this transaction will simplify our capital structure by leaving only common stock, warrants and options outstanding enable us to continue advancing EcoNail through its phase 2 clinical program and initiate development work on our newly acquired product, pexiganan, which has already completed two phase 3 trials."

The company also converted its outstanding series C preferred stock into 12,571,850 shares. Warrants attached to the preferreds to purchase 8,648,102 shares were reset to purchase 17,885,848 shares with at an exercise price of $0.60 per share under their anti-dilution provisions.

MarcoChem's stock closed at $0.65, down $0.15 from Wednesday's close at $0.80.

Griffin Securities, Inc. was the placement agent.

Wellesley Hills, Mass.-based MacroChem is a pharmaceutical company that develops and seeks to commercialize pharmaceutical products.

Alto to raise C$2.2 million

Alto Ventures Ltd. announced it plans a non-brokered private placement of units and shares to raise up to C$2.2 million.

"Right now we are getting close to running out of money and that's why it was a good reason to do a private placement," said Mark Prosser, company's investor relations manager. "Right now is a good time; gold is doing very well so there should be a lot of momentum in the area."

The company will sell up to 6,363,636 units at C$0.11 apiece and 11,538,462 flow-through shares at C$0.13 per share. Each non-flow through unit will consist of one common share and one warrant. Each warrant is exercisable at C$0.20 for one year.

The warrants expire sooner if the company's shares have an average closing price of C$0.30 for 20 consecutive trading days. In that case, holders will be given 30-days' notice to exercise the warrants.

Alto Ventures stock (TSX Venture: ATV) closed Tuesday at C$18.86, up C$0.31 from C$18.55 Monday.

Proceeds will be used for exploration and for general working capital.

"The company is very property rich, we have about 12 projects right now and two are joint ventured, the rest of the projects are 100% owned except for one."

Based in Vancouver, B.C., Alto Ventures is a gold exploration and development company.

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