Note 8 - Stockholders' Equity (Deficit)

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2024

Stockholders' Equity Note [Abstract]

Stockholders' Equity

8. Stockholders’ Equity (Deficit)

The Company has 45,000,000 shares of common stock authorized, and 15,000,000 authorized shares of preferred stock. As of June 30, 2024, 10,363,434 shares of common stock were outstanding, including 429,153 shares of unvested restricted stock. As of June 30, 2024, options and warrants to purchase 866,875 shares of common stock of the Company were outstanding. No shares of preferred stock have been issued. The remaining restricted stock outstanding will vest between August 2024 and January 2027.

ATM Program

On June 8, 2023, the Company entered into a Controlled Equity OfferingSM Sales Agreement (the “Sales Agreement”) with Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. (the “Agent”), pursuant to which the Company may offer and sell from time to time up to $40,000,000 of shares of the Company’s common stock through the Agent (the “ATM Program”). Sales of the Company's common stock under the ATM Program are made, pursuant to the Company’s effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3. Such sales may be made in sales deemed to be an “at the market offering” as defined in Rule 415(a)(4) promulgated under the Securities Act, including sales made directly on or through the New York Stock Exchange or on any other existing trading market for the Company’s common stock. The Company has no obligation to sell any of the common stock under the Sales Agreement and may at any time suspend or terminate the offering of its common stock pursuant to the Sales Agreement upon notice and subject to other conditions. The Company pays the Agent a commission of 2.75% of the gross proceeds of the Shares sold through it under the Sales Agreement. The Company sold 24,115 shares during the six-month period ended June 30, 2024 and 211,376 between June 2023 to December 2023 of common stock pursuant to the Sales Agreement for net proceeds of approximately $0.5 million and $5.2 million, respectively. $34.3 million of the Company's common stock remains available for sale under the ATM Program as of June 30, 2024.

Underwritten Offerings

On June 10, 2024, the Company entered into an underwriting agreement with Canaccord Genuity LLC and Cormark Securities Inc. (collectively, the "June 2024 Underwriters"), relating to the underwritten public offering (the “ June 2024 Offering”) of 731,750 units (the "Units") of the Company at a price of $20.50 per Unit. Each Unit consists of (i) one share of the Company's common stock and (ii) one-half of one accompanying warrant. Each whole accompanying warrant is exercisable to purchase one share of the Company's common stock at a price of $26.00 per warrant, exercisable for a period of 36 months. The June 2024 Underwriters agreed to purchase the Units from the Company pursuant to the June 2024 Underwriting Agreement at a price of $19.37 per Unit, which included a 5.5% underwriting discount. The fair value of each warrant was estimated as of the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model (Level 2 of the fair value hierarchy) with the following weighted average assumptions used: (i) risk-free interest rate of 4.57%; (ii) expected life of 3.0 years; (iii) expected volatility of 57.0%; and (iv) expected dividend yield of 0%. The net proceeds from the June 2024 Offering were $13.7 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses. The June 2024

Offering was made pursuant to the Company’s effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3. The June 2024 Offering closed on June 12, 2024.

On July 24, 2023, the Company entered into an underwriting agreement (the “July 2023 Underwriting Agreement”) with Maxim Group LLC and Freedom Capital Markets (collectively, the “July 2023 Underwriters”), relating to an underwritten public offering (the “July 2023 Offering”) of 1,600,000 shares (the “Underwritten Shares”) of the Company’s common stock at a price of $19.00 per share. The July 2023 Underwriters agreed to purchase the Underwritten Shares from the Company pursuant to the July 2023 Underwriting Agreement at a price of $17.77 per share, which included a 6.5% underwriting discount. The net proceeds from the July 2023 Offering were $28.2 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses. The July 2023 Offering was made pursuant to the Company’s effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3. The July 2023 Offering closed on July 26, 2023.

May 2023 Warrant Exercise

In May 2023, the Company offered holders of its December 2022 Warrants and January 2023 Warrants with an original exercise price of $25.00, (collectively, “the Original Warrants”) the opportunity to exercise those warrants at a reduced exercise price of $22.00 (the “Modified Warrants”) and receive shares of the Company's common stock, by paying the reduced exercise price in cash and surrendering the original warrants on or before May 9, 2023. A total of 313,000 Original Warrants were exercised resulting in total cash to the Company of $6.9 million (the “Warrant Exercise Proceeds”) and the issuance of 313,000 shares of Company common stock upon such exercise. Such shares of common stock were issued in reliance on an exemption from registration under the Securities Act, pursuant to Section 4(a)(2) thereof. In connection with the accelerated exercise of the Original Warrants, the Company agreed to issue new warrants to purchase 313,000 shares of Company common stock at $30.00 per share to the exercising holders in the amount of the respective December 2022 Warrants and January 2023 Warrants that were exercised by such holders (the “May 2023 Warrants”). Consistent with the accounting guidance for modifications of a freestanding equity-classified warrant as a part of an equity offering, the Company recorded the excess in fair value of the Modified Warrants over the Original Warrants as an equity issuance cost, of approximately $383,000. The fair value of the Modified Warrants and the Original Warrants were calculated as of May 9, 2023 with the following weighted average assumptions used: (i) risk-free interest rate of 4.81%; (ii) expected life of 1 year; (iii) expected volatility of 42.5%; and (iv) expected dividend yield of 0%. The May 2023 Warrants were classified within equity and the Warrant Exercise Proceeds were allocated to the May 2023 Warrants based on their relative fair value. The fair value of each of the May 2023 Warrants was estimated as of the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model (Level 2 of the fair value hierarchy) with the following weighted average assumptions used: (i) risk-free interest rate of 4.81%; (ii) expected life of 1.5 years; (iii) expected volatility of 43.7%; and (iv) expected dividend yield of 0%.

January 2023 Private Placement

On January 19, 2023, the Company completed the issuance and sale of an aggregate of 117,500 shares (the “January 2023 Shares”) of the Company’s common stock, for $20.00 per share, and warrants (the “January 2023 Warrants”) entitling each purchaser to purchase shares of common stock for $25.00 per share (the “January 2023 Warrant Shares” and together with the January 2023 Shares and the January 2023 Warrants, the “January 2023 Securities”), in a private placement (the “January 2023 Private Placement”) to certain accredited investors (the “January 2023 Investors”) pursuant to Subscription Agreements (the “January 2023 Subscription Agreements”), dated as of January 19, 2023 between the Company and each of the January 2023 Investors.

Pursuant to the January 2023 Warrants between the Company and each of the January 2023 Investors, the January 2023 Warrants are exercisable, in full or in part, at any time until the second anniversary of their issuance, at an exercise price of $25.00 per share of common stock. Net proceeds from the January 2023 Private Placement totaled approximately $2.3 million and were used to fund the Company’s exploration and development program and for general corporate purposes. The January 2023 Securities sold were not registered under the Securities Act, but the January 2023 Shares and the January 2023 Warrant Shares are subject to a Registration Rights Agreement allowing the shares to be registered by the holders at a future date.

Rights Agreement

On September 23, 2020, the Company adopted a limited duration stockholder rights agreement (the “Rights Agreement”) to replace the Company’s prior stockholder rights plan, which was terminated upon adoption of the Rights Agreement.

Pursuant to the Rights Agreement, the Company's board of directors declared a dividend of one preferred stock purchase right (a “Right”) for each share of the Company’s common stock held of record as of October 5, 2020. The Rights will trade with the Company’s common stock and no separate Rights certificates will be issued, unless and until the Rights become exercisable. In general, the Rights will become exercisable only if a person or group acquires beneficial ownership of 18.0% (or 20.0% for certain passive investors) or more of the Company’s outstanding common stock or announces a tender or exchange offer that would result in beneficial ownership of 18.0% (or 20.0% for certain passive investors) or more of common stock. Each Right will entitle the holder to buy one one-thousandth (1/1000) of a share of a series of junior preferred stock at an exercise price of $100.00 per Right, subject to anti-dilution adjustments.

The Rights Agreement had an initial term of one year, expiring on September 22, 2021.The Company's board of directors has approved several amendments to the Rights Agreement, extending the term of the Rights Agreement to September 23, 2024.