Goldcorp subscribed for most of the second tranche of the placement at C35c a share, raising gross proceeds of C$2.18 million. Together with a C$2.77 million first tranche of the financing that closed in July at the same price per share, Allegiant said it was now fully funded to undertake an aggressive exploration programme at six projects in the coming months.

"Goldcorp's investment is an endorsement of our team, our projects, and of our objective of making a significant new gold discovery. With funding in place, we're about to kick-off an aggressive exploration program that will see six gold projects drilled over the next 10-12 months," chairman and CEO Robert Giustra said.

Allegiant has retained project generator Andy Wallace, who is credited with multiple gold mine discoveries in Nevada, to identify and delineate the drill targets.

The first drill rig is scheduled to arrive at Allegiant's Red Hills project, in Nevada, next week, to carry out eight reverse circulation drill holes totalling up to 2,200m. Following that, the plan is to target Hughes Canyon, Monitor Hills, North Brown, Silverdome and Adularia Hill, which entails a new target located about 12.5km south of the Original Zone gold deposit at the Eastside gold project. The flagship Eastside project hosts a large and expanding gold resource of both oxide and sulphide mineralisation that is amenable to heap leaching.

The investment by Goldcorp, with a market valuation of C$12.27 billion, in a junior such as Allegiant, with a market capitalisation of only C$23.82 million, is in line with Goldcorp's hybrid exploration strategy of investing in early stage juniors to get a foot in the door to promising future projects, while offloading exploration risk on the junior partners.