TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX-V-listed gold explorer Falco Resources has significantly strengthened its board, announcing on Friday that it had appointed former Osisko Mining and current Osisko Gold Royalties CEO Sean Roosen director and chairperson of the board, after Osisko Gold last month announced that it intended to raise its ownership in Falco to 14.99%.

"Sean made an enormous contribution to the gold mining industry in the province of Quebec during his tenure as president and CEO of Osisko Mining Corp. Falco stands to benefit from a stronger relationship with its largest shareholder in three ways – access to capital, technical bench strength and first-in-class sustainability practices,” Falco president and CEO Trent Mell said.

Roosen was appointed chairperson and CEO of Osisko Gold Royalties as of June this year. Before that, he filled the same positions at Osisko Mining, which he cofounded.

Under Roosen’s watch, Osisko Mining transformed from a junior exploration company to an intermediate gold producer. Over that period, he was responsible for developing the permitting and financing strategy to bring the $1-billion Canadian Malartic mine into production.

A graduate of the Haileybury School of Mines, Roosen has held numerous roles in the mining industry both domestically and internationally. His other directorships include Condor Petroleum, Dalradian Resources and NioGold Mining.

Late last month, Osisko Gold announced that it had signed a share purchase agreement (SPA) with QMX Gold to acquire 1.48-million Falco common shares at a price of $0.45 a share for a total of $670 045.50, representing about 2.04% of the issued and outstanding stock.

It added that it intended to buy 1.21-million more common shares that were subject to an escrow agreement at a price of $0.27 apiece.

Falco was also garnering interest from other investors. Last week, venture investment firm Sulliden Mining Capital announced that it too had entered into a SPA with QMX to buy 1.18-million shares at $0.45 apiece for $531 227.25, which represented about 1.6% of Falco.

LAST CAMP STANDING

Falco held one of the largest gold camps in Quebec’s Abitibi. The company owned mineral rights to 14 former mines within a 700 km² land package.

Its main property is the Horne mine complex, which was operated by Noranda from 1927 to 1976 and produced 11.6-million ounces of gold and 2.5-billion pounds of copper. A maiden 43-101 mineral resource estimate for the Horne 5 deposit delineated an initial inferred resource of 25.3-million tonnes, grading 2.64 g/t gold, 0.23% copper and 0.7% zinc, for 2.2-million ounces of contained gold.

"We know the Abitibi and I believe our expertise can help Falco advance its strategic objectives. Falco controls the last of the large Abitibi camps that is not owned by a major gold producer and, as their largest shareholder, we want to help them succeed,” Roosen commented.

Falco shares rose as high as C$0.65 apiece in early deals on Friday, having gained 41.5% so far this year.