Stockwatch - Gold Summary for Jan. 17Gold Summary for Jan. 17, 20192019-01-17 19:51 ET - Market Summaryby Stockwatch Business Reporter
Chris Lodder's Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. (BGM), down two cents to 43 cents on 161,000 shares, plans another major drill program at its Cariboo gold project in south-central British Columbia. The company completed 123,000 metres of drilling last year and plans nearly as much again this year to expand and upgrade the existing resource. Drilling over the past few years has yielded a significant resource at Cariboo, with 8.1 million tonnes measured and indicated at 6.1 grams of gold per tonne and another 12.7 million tonnes inferred at 5.2 grams per tonne, for a combined 3.75 million ounces. (Over two million of the ounces reside in the Shaft zone.) The company plans 50,000 metres of drilling initially, which will include infill drilling of high-grade vein corridors with greater than six grams of gold per tonne, with the aim of upgrading inferred resources in those areas to higher classifications. As well, Barkerville will test the true depth potential of the high-grade vein corridors at the Shaft, Cow Mountain and Mosquito Creek zones, using 50-metre stepout holes. Following the first phase of drilling, a second program will kick in, with another 40,000 metres planned. The Oakville-based Mr. Lodder, Barkerville's $425,000-per-year president and CEO since mid-2016, has shown staying power in the role -- a welcome relief from what Barkerville experienced over the previous few years. Although his predecessors collected less salary, they made up for it through big termination payments. Tom Obradovich had been collecting just $300,000 per year when he parted ways with Barkerville in 2016, and he apparently got $600,000 as a termination benefit. Frank Callaghan had been earning $240,000 until he left in 2014, just ahead of regulatory scrutiny. He continued to draw his salary for the next two years as a termination benefit.