wait for eld ' s article . Here ' s another articleSent to me by A . Viewer . I do not know the author BUT it is a great look at BYN and possibilities .
Banyan Gold (TSXV:BYN, C$100M) which published a 4Moz resource update for its Aurmac deposit in May and with 60,000m in its drilling plan for this year, management believes the resource will number 6-8Moz the next time it is calculated.
The company raised an upsized C$17M in June and is well-funded to deliver on that. What makes BYN an obvious potential deal is that it is adjacent to 200,000oz/y producer Victoria Gold. The Powerline deposit at Aurmac hosts 152 million tonnes grading 0.59g/t and the Airstrip deposit 42.5Mt grading 0.64g/t at a 0.2g/t cut-off, which is higher than Victoria's 0.15g/t.
Banyan's president and CEO Tara Christie wants to keep adding ounces before embarking on a PEA and thinks annual production of 200,000oz/y a possibility. "Finding a high-grade starter pit is critical. Victoria's feasibility included mining 0.8g/t during the first two years to give them a two-year payback. When we find something like that, I will do a PEA," Christie told me during a site visit in June.
Having infrastructure is critical in Yukon and Banyan has access to the same road and power infrastructure as Victoria, including a 138kV powerline supplying hydropower from a facility in Mayo, which crosses Banyan's aptly named Powerline deposit. A combination with Victoria would also bring Aurmac within the shadow of Eagle's permits, cutting the time to permit it and benefiting from Victoria’s experience of having already successfully permitted a mine in the territory.
Victoria president and CEO John McConnell recognises his company’s vulnerability as a single asset producer and while he is working hard to quickly pay down the debt he raised to build Eagle mine, debottlenecking to increase production and exploring to extend mine life, at some point Victoria will face a deal or be dealt scenario.
Victoria was an early investor in Banyan and owns 12.4%, but as a 5% shareholder herself, Christie wants any potential hook-up to make sense for her investors, and would expect Victoria, or any other suitor, to pay full and fair value. "We will only combine if it is good value for my shareholders: it cannot only be good for Victoria's shareholders. I want to test many targets we have and would be unhappy with a 40% premium at the current share price and see someone else make a discovery," she said.
Christie and McConnell are married, which adds another layer onto this story, but not one which would preclude a deal being made as each company has taken corporate governance steps to ensure that if and when the time comes to undertake what some see as an inevitable transaction, conflicts of interest will not be an issue, with each party having plenty of independent directors to manage the process. There is also a bigger picture angle here as with large gold miners looking for projects with a 500,000oz/y of annual production, Victoria-Banyan has the makings of a double-play in which a bigger company could take them both.
That’s all for now. Plenty of news is expected in the coming weeks as the sector moves closer to the September conference season.
https://goldjournal.substack.com/p/biggest-gold-find-in-decades-under