Precious metals miner Claude Resources increased its offer for the rest of St. Eugene Mining Corp. in a stock deal that now values the smaller gold exploration company at $18.7 million, the Canada-based company said.

Shareholders of St. Eugene, which is based in Toronto, will get 0.0789 of a Claude share for every St. Eugene share.

This values St. Eugene's shares at 16 Canadian cents apiece, a 39 percent premium to its Tuesday closing.

In July, Claude had said it would buy the rest of St. Eugene's shares for about $14 million, or 0.0601 of its share for every share of St. Eugene.

St. Eugene's shareholders will now also get 0.25 of a share in a new company formed to transfer its stake in the Tartan Lake gold mine project, and about C$800,000 in cash.

St. Eugene has agreed to pay C$800,000 if the deal falls through.

Shares of Claude closed at C$2 on Tuesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. St. Eugene stock closed at 11.5 Canadian cents on the Toronto Venture Exchange.

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