Rodeo Creek GoldThere were questions asked on this board about the contract to mill the ore from Rodeo Creek Gold (Great Basin) in the Queenstake's Jerritt Canyon mill.
The question that was asked most times....why did they take so long to report this piece of news
I spoke with company officials today and they state...that the answer is in the NR...which I have read again, and decided to post part of the NR.
Read the first part,
"VANCOUVER, Apr 13, 2010 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX) -- Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp. (or "the Company") (
YNG) Robert Baldock, President and CEO of the Company wishes to advise the market about the status of an agreement which was entered into in October, 2009, between Rodeo Creek Gold, Inc. ("RCG") and Queenstake Resources USA, Inc. ("Queenstake"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp., which contemplated that Queenstake would treat ore from RCG's Hollister mine on a toll basis at the Jerritt Canyon milling and treatment facility in Nevada. The agreement also contemplated other treatment processes would be carried out by Queenstake for RCG and included a first right of refusal to purchase the Hollister gold mine, should RCG decide to dispose of the mine in the future."
This is interesting,
And the reason why it was reported now. The answer is in the following....YNG has tried to negotiate ...but unsuccessfully
"The Company and Queenstake have attempted to negotiate with RCG to resolve the differences between the parties, but the discussions have been unsuccessful. The Company has advised RCG that it considers the agreement to be in full force and effect, that it holds RCG in default of the agreement and is considering its position."
You can see by these two extracts from the NR....YNG has tried to solve the "problem"
And this is what Rodeo Creek Gold (Great Basin) has now done
"Great Basin Gold, Newmont reach agreement
By ADELLA HARDING - Mining Quarterly Editor
Published: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 4:11 PM CDT
ELKO — Great Basin Gold Ltd. announced today the company has reached an agreement with Newmont Mining Corp. to buy ore from the Hollister Project in Elko County.
Great Basin reported the company agreed to sell between 35,000 and 50,000 tons of ore to Newmont from the current stockpile at the site, where the company is test mining.
Newmont will settle 75 percent of the estimated value of the ore within five days after delivery at a fixed price of $1,000 an ounce for gold and $17 per ounce of silver, according to Great Basin.
The remaining 25 percent will be settled once all the metal has been crushed and final assays completed, according to the announcement.
Great Basin stated it anticipates recovering 28,000 gold equivalent ounces with estimated net proceeds of $26.3 million under the agreement with Newmont.
Hollister is an underground operation awaiting U.S. Bureau of Land Management approval to become a full-production mine, and the BLM published its notice of intent this week to begin gathering input for preparation of an environmental impact statement on the project.
Janice Stadelman of the Elko BLM office said today she is setting up dates for public meetings on the proposed EIS.
Great Basin President and Chief Executive Officer Fred Dippenaar said the publication was within the time frame the company had anticipated.
“While waiting for the NOI process to be completed, Rodeo Creek, in conjunction with the third-party EIS contractor and the BLM, was actively gathering information, developing various field survey protocols and a groundwater hydrology model, as well as drafting the first two chapters of the EIS,” he said in the announcement.
The subsidiary operating Hollister is called Rodeo Creek Gold Inc.
“The management team at our Hollister and Esmeralda operations in Nevada continue to make good progress in delivering what is probably one of the most interesting gold projects in that region,” Dippenaar said.
Great Basin also announced that the first gold pour at its Esmeralda Mill near Hawthorne happened on April 14. The company bought the Esmeralda site in late 2008 and began refurbishing the mill that had been on care and maintenance.
“The mill at Esmeralda was producing concentrates that were being treated off site,” Great Basin Gold General Manager Paul Huet said."
So by what I see, that negotiations were going on until things fell apart.....too bad we couldn't invest in law firms, because we can see this will probably go to arbitration, or court..........Richard