NYSE- and TSX-listed major Barrick Gold has bought a 13.67% shareholding in the company that owns a project adjacent to its Pueblo Viejo mine, in the Dominican Republic.

Barrick agreed to acquire 12 713 636 common shares in Vancouver-based Precipitate Gold at C$0.11 a share, for an aggregate subscription price of nearly C$1.4-million.

This grants Barrick an exclusive right to earn a 70% interest in Precipitate’s Pueblo Grande project.

The Dominican Republic investment follows an announcement on Monday that Barrick would acquire a 70% interest in NYSE- and TSX-listed Golden Minerals’ El Quevar silver project, in Argentina.

The group last year renewed its commitment to Latin American countries.

To earn the interest in Pueblo Viejo, Barrick has to incur a minimum of $10-million in qualifying work expenditures in six years and complete at least 7 500 m of drilling in that time. It also has to deliver a prefeasibility study.

Precipitate president and CEO Jeffrey Wilson commented in a statement that should Barrick’s work prove successful in delineating a meaningful mineable resource, Precipitate would be carried for a significant retained interest with no cash outlay by the company.

“The work expenditure commitments and expeditious timeline to completion of a prefeasibility study supports the company’s belief that the Pueblo Grande project represents an important and prospective land package warranting a substantial budget for extensive property-wide exploration and drilling.

“Barrick’s technical and financial capacity to conduct this work provides Precipitate shareholders with upside leverage, while mitigating risk and limiting potential share dilution to finance work programmes of this scale."

The injection of additional capital into the company from the $1-million private placement allows Precipitate to continue the advancement of its other 100%-owned Dominican Republic projects. Its exploration focus will immediately turn to near term drill targets emerging within the company’s nearby Ponton gold project and the ongoing advancement of existing targets at the Juan de Herrera project, immediately adjacent to GoldQuest’s Romero project.