Golden Queen Mining Co. Ltd. closed this week on a joint venture investment for its gold mine in the Antelope Valley. Gauss LLC will invest $110 million in exchange for a 50 percent stake in the Soledad Mountain gold and silver mine outside of Mojave. The project is a fully permitted open pit mine from which 77,000 ounces of gold as well as 890,000 ounces of silver should be extracted. Gauss LLC is a joint venture between Leucadia National Corp., a publicly traded holding company in multiple industries headquartered in New York, and Auvergne LLC, an investment vehicle owned by members of the Clay family, who are also the largest shareholders in Golden Queen, headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. Part of the $110 million from Gauss will be used to pay off a $10 million loan Golden Queen received from Leucadia and Auvergne this summer. The remainder will go toward development of the mining project. Golden Queen acquired the mine in 1985 and over the past dozen years has invested about $60 million in metallurgical testing and engineering work, environmental studies and extensive drill programs. Construction for the mining infrastructure is expected to total about $119 million.