In April, LaFleur Minerals picked Trafigura to arrange a prepayment facility of up to C$30 million. On Tuesday it said it will not proceed with that term sheet. What it signed instead is an advance of up to US$5 million from a different metals trader, attached to a definitive contract and scoped to a single bulk sample.
LaFleur Signs Definitive Doré Purchase Agreement With Ocean Partners
LaFleur Minerals Inc. (CSE: LFLR) (OTCQB: LFLRF) (FSE: 3WK0) announced on October 13 that it has entered into an arm’s length definitive gold and silver purchase agreement with Ocean Partners UK Limited, effective October 1, 2026. Ocean Partners will buy 100% of the gold and silver doré produced from LaFleur’s planned bulk sample at its Swanson Gold Project near Val-d’Or, Québec. Doré is the semi-pure bar a mill pours on site before the metal goes to a refinery. The material is to be processed at LaFleur’s wholly owned Beacon Gold Mill.
Pricing follows prevailing LBMA gold and silver prices, the London benchmark used across the bullion trade, less customary refining charges. Deliveries are subject to a minimum delivery commitment. The release does not disclose its size.
The financing piece is a working capital advance of up to US$5 million. LaFleur can draw it in full, at its option and subject to customary conditions, from January 1, 2027. Interest runs at three-month CME SOFR, a US dollar benchmark lending rate, plus 7.50%, with repayment taken as deductions from payments for metal delivered. According to the company, the advance is not secured by any of its assets and can be repaid early without penalty. No arrangement fee is payable, and no shares or warrants are attached. Beacon stays 100% owned and free of royalties or other encumbrances.
Until January 1, 2027, there is nothing to draw.
Ocean Partners Replaces a Proposed C$30 Million Trafigura Facility
The agreement closes out a different negotiation. LaFleur’s July 7 update described an indicative term sheet with Trafigura Canada Limited for a prepayment facility of up to C$30 million plus a gold doré purchase agreement. Apart from customary provisions such as exclusivity, that term sheet was non-binding. It was framed around funding processing operations and a ramp-up toward a targeted 1,250 tonnes per day at Beacon, along with development at Swanson.
Trafigura representatives toured the mill and Swanson on August 10 and 11, according to LaFleur’s September 9 release, which also cautioned that there was no assurance a definitive agreement would follow. On October 13 the company said it will not proceed with the Trafigura term sheet. It gave no reason.
The two facilities are not like for like. Trafigura’s proposal was pitched at development and a higher processing rate, while the Ocean Partners advance is tied to the bulk sample alone and repaid from that sample’s metal.
Swanson Bulk Sample Permits Pending as Beacon Nears Recommissioning
No metal can move under the agreement until the bulk sample is mined and milled. The October 13 release says baseline studies, including geotechnical and hydrogeological work, are continuing at the Swanson mining lease to support the closure and remediation plan and the other permits required to complete the sample. Receipt of those permits was not reported in any source reviewed for this article.
When LaFleur began permitting in May 2025, it described a bulk sample of approximately 100,000 tonnes at an estimated average grade of 1.89 grams of gold per tonne, about 6,350 contained ounces. No updated bulk sample figure was found in the sources reviewed.
Beacon is a permitted mill rated at roughly 750 tonnes per day. Its recommissioning stood at over 95% complete on an average per-item basis as of September 9, with full recommissioning expected in the fourth quarter once the remaining mill work and the tailings storage facility repairs are finished. Those tailings repairs were still under way on October 13.
Swanson’s 2026 mineral resource estimate, prepared under NI 43-101 (Canada’s disclosure standard for mineral projects) with an effective date of February 18, 2026, reports 2.96 million tonnes of Indicated resources at 1.69 g/t gold for 160,300 ounces, plus 1.08 million tonnes Inferred at 1.93 g/t for 66,800 ounces, across open-pit and underground. There are no mineral reserves. LaFleur has not made a production decision based on a feasibility study, and its own release warns that this raises the risk that tonnages, grades, recoveries and costs for the bulk sample may not be realized.
LaFleur Carries a Going Concern Note After C$11 Million in June Financings
LaFleur has no revenue. Its interim financial statements for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, which were not reviewed by an auditor, include a going concern note citing a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt on its ability to continue operating. Continuing depends on raising more money and on generating revenue, the note states.
On June 9 the company closed three placements for gross proceeds of about C$11.0 million: C$5.27 million of hard-dollar units at C$0.50 and C$5.75 million of flow-through units at C$0.57 and C$0.68. Flow-through shares pass exploration tax deductions to the buyer. Every unit carried a warrant exercisable at C$0.75 for 36 months. Shares outstanding rose to 117,130,926 at June 30 from 97,532,926 at March 31, and 63,029,082 warrants were outstanding.
Cash at June 30 was C$806,868, alongside C$8.04 million in short-term deposits and against current liabilities of C$4.75 million. The quarter’s net loss came to C$2.29 million. Two older debts sit in those liabilities. One is a C$540,363 federal RRRF relief loan, on which LaFleur received a notice of default in October 2022 and says it is negotiating repayment. The other is a C$361,068 loan from Flowing Lithium Corp., which shares a director with LaFleur, now due on demand.
If drawn, the Ocean Partners advance would add an interest-bearing obligation rather than new shares.
LaFleur’s Q4 Mill Target and January 2027 Advance Window
LaFleur expects full recommissioning of the Beacon Gold Mill in the fourth quarter of 2026, per its September 9 release. The Ocean Partners advance becomes available to draw from January 1, 2027. The company has not disclosed a date for receiving bulk sample permits or for starting to mine the sample. Its flow-through commitments require C$5,579,312 in qualifying exploration spending by December 31, 2027, according to the June 30 statements.
Sources
- Newsfile: LaFleur Minerals Signs Definitive Gold and Silver Purchase Agreement with Ocean Partners, October 13, 2026
- Newsfile: LaFleur Minerals Appoints Andrew Elinesky as Chief Executive Officer and Provides Update on Beacon Gold Mill Recommissioning Work and Swanson Bulk Sample Progress, September 9, 2026
- Newsfile: LaFleur Minerals and Trafigura Progress Toward Definitive Agreement, Beacon Gold Mill Nearing Gold Production Restart, July 7, 2026
- GlobeNewswire: LaFleur Minerals Engages Leading Executive Search Firm to Recruit Senior Mining Executive as Company Advances Toward Gold Production, May 8, 2026
- LaFleur Minerals (company website): Swanson Gold Project, 2026 Updated Mineral Resource Estimate, accessed October 14, 2026
- Newsfile: LaFleur Minerals Begins Permitting Process for a Bulk Sample from the Swanson Deposit to be Processed at its Beacon Gold Mill, May 1, 2025
- SEDAR+ filing (via CSE): LaFleur Minerals Inc. Condensed Interim Consolidated Financial Statements, Three Months Ended June 30, 2026, approved August 28, 2026
Editorial Disclosure
This article is based entirely on publicly available information, including company press releases distributed by Newsfile and GlobeNewswire, the company’s website, and its interim financial statements filed on SEDAR+. The security discussed is LaFleur Minerals Inc. (CSE: LFLR) (OTCQB: LFLRF) (FSE: 3WK0). aktiego.com has not received any compensation from LaFleur Minerals, Ocean Partners, their management, investor relations representatives, or any third party. No staff member or principal of aktiego.com holds a position in this security at the time of publication.
The Ocean Partners agreement is definitive, but the working capital advance of up to US$5 million is available only from January 1, 2027, at the company’s option and subject to customary conditions, so nothing has been drawn as of this writing. The size of the minimum delivery commitment is not disclosed. Deliveries depend on a bulk sample that has not yet been mined, and receipt of the permits required to complete it was not reported in the sources reviewed. The earlier Trafigura prepayment facility of up to C$30 million was a non-binding indicative term sheet that will not proceed; the company did not give a reason.
LaFleur has not made a production decision based on a feasibility study, and Swanson has no declared mineral reserves. The bulk sample is a test-mining step, not commercial production, and Beacon has not completed recommissioning. Resource figures come from the company’s NI 43-101 compliant 2026 mineral resource estimate, effective February 18, 2026, as reported in its May 8, 2026 release; Inferred resources are too speculative geologically to be treated as reserves. The bulk sample tonnage and grade cited are company estimates from May 2025. The qualified person who approved the October 13 release, Marc Ducharme, P.Geo., is LaFleur’s own Vice President of Exploration.
LaFleur’s interim financial statements for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 were not reviewed by an auditor and include a going concern note citing a material uncertainty. The company has no revenue. Its June 2026 financings of about C$11.0 million were dilutive, and exercise of the 63,029,082 warrants outstanding at June 30 would dilute holders further. The company has disclosed a 2022 notice of default on its RRRF loan and a related-party loan now due on demand. LaFleur trades on the OTCQB in the United States, which is DTC eligible. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of LaFleur’s press releases, per the company’s own standard disclosure.
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