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Paramount CEO Chris Crupi. (Darren Brown, OBJ)

Paramount Gold and Silver Corp. (TSX:PZG) is going against the current of bad news in Ottawa's junior mining sector with Wednesday's announcement that it has raised $2 million and bought an interest in a British Columbia mining property that may yield a metal used in Blu-ray products.

The company, which suffered through delisting fears and accusations of corporate hijacking early in 2008, looks set to start the new year on a more positive note after concluding a private placement of roughly 3.63 million units at 55 cents each with Toronto-based fund MineralFields Group.

Paramount is the second local junior mining company to get a deal with MineralFields in recent months; Patrician Diamonds also raised more than $1.1 million in two private placements with the fund in May and September.

Paramount CEO Chris Crupi said MineralFields had approached the mining firm earlier and expressed interest in investing in the company, but a deal hadn't worked out because MineralFields is focused on Canadian mining projects and Paramount had only been developing its Mexican project at the time.

However, since the company has now purchased a 25-per-cent initial option in B.C.'s Vidette Lake Gold Mine in a stock deal with 500,000 of its common shares – with the right to earn up to a 90-per-cent interest if it chooses to invest roughly $750,000 on ground exploration work within three years – it's now an ideal time to work with MineralFields, Mr. Crupi said.

"We were able to leverage the strength of our project in Mexico to leverage into this financing, which as you know is very difficult to do in this market," added Mr. Crupi, noting that MineralFields was a key investment partner since it has been known to follow up with later rounds of financing.

He said Paramount had taken an interest in the Vidette Lake property because it's historically been a high-grade gold and silver mine that was in production until 1940, when the war halted its operations. The property is in close proximity to roughly 30 other mines and is supported by strong infrastructure, Mr. Crupi said.

"We believe there's still gold remaining in and around the mine," he said, adding that a portion of the MineralFields funds would be used to determine what's still on the property.

More interestingly, he said, recent assay work done by the property's existing owner indicated the presence of tellurite, a rare mineral that is used in optical discs such as Blu-ray and is usually found close to high-grade gold and silver.

"There's already been interest from two major players in Europe and the U.S. ... the metal sells for $200 a pound," Mr. Crupi noted.

The deal leaves the owner of the mine with a one-per-cent royalty on the Vidette Lake property, he added.

Mr. Crupi said Paramount is also looking actively at other gold projects around Canada, with more information expected in the coming weeks. He also didn't rule out being acquired or becoming an acquirer of another mining company.

"We're looking at both side of the coin," he said.