Did not even make the gold summary today???
New York spot gold gained $9.90 to $1,107.90 on Monday. The TSX Venture Exchange fell 1.06 points to 482.61 while the TSX Gold Index gained 4.81 points to 132.11. Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) had a good day, gaining $1.08 to $13.24 on 10.65 million shares, but Eldorado Gold Corp.(ELG) did not. It lost 25 cents to $2.98 on 11.10 million shares.
Alvin Jackson and Kristina Walcott's Freegold Ventures Ltd. (FVL), up one cent to 7.5 cents on 125,000 shares, has obtained "positive results" -- rarely are they otherwise -- from a preliminary economic study of its Golden Summit gold project, northeast of Fairbanks in central Alaska. (In this case, much of the cheeriness stems from an assumed gold price of $1,300 (U.S.) per ounce.) The dream sheet credits the $88.4-million (U.S.) mine plan with a discounted net present value of $188-million (U.S.) after taxes. The plan calls for Golden Summit to produce nearly 100,000 ounces annually over 24 years.
Ms. Walcott, president and chief executive officer, says the project has a number of competitive advantages, including its location, existing infrastructure and friendly bureaucrats. She says that Freegold intends to "offset early costs with a phased approach." In other words, many of the capital expenditures needed to complete the full mine have been pushed ahead into the sustaining capital budget, which is a hefty $348-million (U.S.). Further, she says more drilling will allow the company to "grow the oxide mineral resource." At last report Golden Summit held 79.8 million tonnes indicated at 0.66 gram of gold per tonne and 248 million inferred at 0.61 gram per tonne, for a combined 6.5 million ounces. Just under 700,000 of those ounces in the oxide zone.
Freegold's stock has not done well since it traded to $1.35 late in 2012. It has fallen relentlessly to a five-cent low late last year. Nevertheless, the company's management has yet to tighten their belts -- unless a salary freeze qualifies as an austerity measure. The Vancouver-based Ms. Walcott has been pulling in $175,000 per year in salary over the past three years, as has Mr. Jackson, the company's vice-president of exploration. Perhaps Freegold can keep them busy this year; the two senior officers say they will "begin advancing the project to the preliminary feasibility stage."
Brian Fowler's BCGold Corp. (BCG), up one-half cent to 1.5 cents on 477,000 shares, intends to acquire the Wels property in Yukon from Scott Sheldon's unlisted Gorilla Minerals Corp. To do so, BCGold intends to restructure, rolling back its stock 1:5 and then selling 12 million consolidated shares at five cents. To acquire Wels, BCGold will issue eight million consolidated shares to Gorilla and welcome Mr. Sheldon, Gorilla's president and CEO, and Ranj Pillai, a Gorilla director, to its board. Upon closing, Mr. Sheldon becomes BCGold's official communicator, while Mr. Pillai, who is also a director of a local first nations group, will provide "invaluable and first-hand insights" -- an in, in other words -- with the locals.
Mr. Fowler, BCGold's president and CEO, says Wels is a totally new, very exciting discovery -- if noteworthy assays from trench samples in 2014 and from drilling last year qualifies as "totally new." The rock tested in the trench sampling assayed up to 15.4 grams of gold over six metres and 13.81 grams per tonne over 21 metres, while the drilling managed up to 3.11 grams of gold per tonne over 19.5 metres in one of five holes. Mr. Fowler says BCGold plans mapping, prospecting and more trenching to define the limits of the Saddle zone, which produced the gold so far, and to develop drill targets on the North Ridge and Southwest Spur zones. Investors hoping for a big drill program will likely have to wait, as Mr. Fowler says the company "invites expressions of interest" from companies wanting to earn into Wels through a significant exploration commitment.
Mr. Fowler has been earning $175,000 per year in salary over the past three years, but in fiscal 2013 he deferred nearly $30,000 in pay and the following year he deferred nearly $94,000 of his salary. He is also president and CEO of RedQuest Capital Corp. (RQM.H: $0.005), but it has not paid him for his services.
Clive Johnson's B2Gold Corp. (BTO) lost three cents to 90 cents on 10.90 million shares. The company and its co-venturer on the Monte Carmelo project at Borosi in Nicaragua, Greg Smith's Calibre Mining Corp. (CXB: $0.07), have assayed 5.47 grams of gold per tonne over 105 metres in auger holes along four lines on the prospect. Mr. Smith, Calibre's president and CEO, says the tests are defining the source of gold found in soil tests. The next step will be to text extensions to the zone and to sample nearby zones on the project. B2Gold currently owns a 51-per-cent interest and can add another 19 per cent by spending $6-million by the spring of 2018