Independent proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis & Company have recommended that shareholders of explorer Balmoral Resources vote in favour of a C$110-million takeover from miner Wallbridge Mining.

Through the combination, Wallbridge and Balmoral aim to form an exploration and development company with a dominant land position along the Detour gold trend, in Quebec.

Balmoral securityholders will vote on the transaction at a meeting in Vancouver on May 7. However, the date and time of the meeting are subject to any changes which may result from the current global Covid-19 pandemic situation.

Meanwhile, Balmoral has also donated its remaining stock of personal protective equipment (PPE), including N95 masks and surgical gloves, to healthcare workers at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, as that government mandated shutdown of its exploration activities in Quebec.

“We recognise the tremendous bravery and dedication being shown by healthcare workers throughout Canada in the fight against Covid-19 and are pleased to have been able to provide our remaining PPE supplies in support of their effort,” said Balmoral president and CEO Darin Wagner.

The closure of the project has also affected the company’s winter 2020 drill programme, which it failed to complete before closure.

However, as a result of the dedicated efforts of Balmoral’s exploration team, it was able to complete the sampling of all of the holes drilled during the 2020 winter drill programme and deliver the samples to its analytical service supplier for analysis.

Currently, the company expects final, or near final, results from all drill holes over the next seven to ten days and should be in a position to release the results from the winter 2020 drill programme prior to the deadline for securityholder voting with respect to the proposed transaction.