Agnico Eagle Agrees to Invest C$57.2 Million in Radisson Mining

Agnico Eagle Mines has agreed to invest C$57.1594 million in Radisson Mining Resources, giving the senior gold producer a significant position in the junior explorer and funding a new underground exploration phase at Radisson’s O’Brien Gold Project in Quebec’s Abitibi region. If the placement closes as planned, Agnico Eagle would own about 10.45% of Radisson’s outstanding common shares on a non-diluted basis and about 14.90% on a partially diluted basis.

The investment is notable because the proceeds are not being directed simply to more surface drilling. Radisson plans to use the new capital to begin an advanced underground exploration program that is expected to include an access ramp, underground and surface infrastructure and water-management facilities. The company says the work is intended to collect the geological, geotechnical and operating information needed to evaluate mining options and possible future development scenarios at O’Brien.

Radisson said Monday that Agnico Eagle will buy 53.42 million units at C$1.07 apiece in a non-brokered private placement. The subscription price represents a 6% premium to Radisson’s Aug. 21 closing price and a 19% premium to its 20-day volume-weighted average price. Closing remains subject to customary conditions, including approval from the TSX Venture Exchange.

Agnico Eagle gets shares, warrants and investor rights

Each unit consists of one Radisson Class A common share and one-half of a common-share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant will be exercisable at C$1.39 per share for 60 months after closing, with an acceleration provision that can apply after 24 months if Radisson’s 20-day volume-weighted average price exceeds C$1.85 for the required period. No commissions or finder’s fees are payable on the placement.

The warrants give Agnico Eagle a path to increase its economic exposure if Radisson’s shares trade high enough to make exercise attractive, but those potential proceeds are not part of the C$57.1594 million Radisson is raising now. The partially diluted ownership figure of about 14.90% reflects the warrant component specified in the financing terms.

Agnico Eagle will also receive governance and participation rights once the investment closes. Under an investor rights agreement, it will be entitled to nominate one director to Radisson’s board, or two directors if the board is expanded to eight or more members, subject to ownership thresholds. Agnico Eagle said it has no present intention of exercising that nomination right. It will also have rights to participate in certain future equity offerings so that it can maintain or build its position up to the greater of its then-current ownership and 14.9% on a partially diluted basis, along with a separate top-up right for certain dilutive issuances.

The agreement gives Agnico Eagle more contractual influence than a plain equity subscription. Radisson has also agreed to restrictions through Dec. 31, 2028 on specified actions involving its mineral properties, including some dispositions, royalties, streams, offtake arrangements and secured financings. After that period, Agnico Eagle is to receive 60 days’ advance notice of specified property-related actions for as long as it retains at least a 5% partially diluted interest. Change-of-control deals are excluded from those restrictions and notice rights.

Agnico Eagle said its purchase fits its strategy of building strategic positions in prospective opportunities with high geological potential. For Radisson, the premium-priced placement brings in a well-capitalized mining company with extensive operating experience in Quebec, while leaving the O’Brien project under Radisson’s 100% ownership.

New capital opens an underground workstream at O’Brien

Radisson says engineering and permitting for the underground program will begin immediately. The planned access ramp and related infrastructure are meant to give the company direct underground access so it can better assess mineralization continuity, ground conditions, possible mining methods and processing criteria. Management described the work as the first modern underground access at O’Brien.

That distinction matters because Radisson is already running a large surface exploration campaign. Its 140,000-metre step-out drilling program is being funded from existing cash and is expected to continue alongside the new underground work. The Agnico Eagle financing therefore adds a second exploration and project-de-risking track rather than replacing the surface program.

Radisson had strengthened that cash position earlier in the year. On May 28, it closed a C$24.9998 million flow-through share financing for exploration at O’Brien, including deeper drilling beyond the then-current program. At that time, the company said results supported extending its exploration ambition from a 2-kilometre depth horizon to 2.5 kilometres. The August investment is aimed at a different stage of work: creating underground access and collecting information that surface drilling alone cannot provide as efficiently.

The new financing should not be read as a mine-construction decision. Radisson has not announced a final development budget for an operating mine, and the underground program is specifically designed to inform future mining choices. Permits, engineering, technical results, costs and additional approvals can still change the scope or timing of any later development plan.

Resource growth and an earlier PEA frame the strategic interest

O’Brien sits in the Bousquet-Cadillac mining camp along the Larder Lake-Cadillac Break, a long-established gold district in Quebec’s Abitibi region. Radisson’s updated mineral resource estimate, effective Jan. 31 and released March 2, put indicated resources at 0.63 million ounces of gold in 3.49 million tonnes grading 5.59 grams per tonne. Inferred resources were estimated at 1.69 million ounces in 10.37 million tonnes grading 5.08 grams per tonne.

Compared with the prior estimate used as the reference point, indicated ounces increased 8% and inferred ounces increased 82%. Radisson attributed much of the inferred-resource growth to step-out drilling that added mineralization below and beyond the earlier resource volume. The company’s drilling has continued since that estimate, and the August announcement says recent work has shown gold mineralization with good continuity beneath the former mine and current resources to at least 1.9 kilometres depth.

Those figures remain mineral resources, not mineral reserves. Radisson’s own technical disclosure cautions that mineral resources do not have demonstrated economic viability, and inferred resources carry a lower level of geological confidence than indicated resources. The underground program funded by Agnico Eagle is intended in part to reduce some of the geological and engineering uncertainty that still separates exploration success from a development decision.

A July 2025 preliminary economic assessment provides an earlier economic framework for O’Brien, but it should be viewed in the context of what has changed since then. That study outlined an 11-year underground mine plan with C$175 million of initial capital, and estimated an after-tax net present value of C$532 million at a 5% discount rate and a 48% internal rate of return using a US$2,550-per-ounce gold price for the financial analysis. It assumed off-site toll milling and a relatively small surface footprint.

The PEA was based on an older resource model and did not incorporate the subsequent 2026 resource increase or the newer deep drilling now driving Radisson’s exploration program. It was also preliminary and included inferred resources, so its economics are not equivalent to a feasibility study or a reserve-based mine plan. The company still has to determine how the growing resource base, underground access, geotechnical data and processing options fit together.

The next formal milestone is closing of the private placement, which Agnico Eagle said is expected on or about Sept. 2, subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval and other closing conditions. Once closing occurs, the investor rights agreement and Agnico Eagle’s resulting ownership position are expected to take effect while Radisson advances engineering, permitting and the parallel underground and surface exploration programs at O’Brien.