RE:I sence a paradoxThe Casino deposit was first explored in 1911 and was staked in 1917. It was restaked in 1965 by Casino Silver Mines. From 1965 to 1967, rich silver veins were explored when it was accidentally discovered that Casino was actually a bulk tonnage copper, gold, molybdenum deposit. They also realized it was a deeply weathered deposit in which minerals were naturally leached in the ground meaning it would cut down on much of the human leaching required. The Brynelson Group acquired Casino in 1967. In 1970, Bremada acquired the property and extensive surveying was conducted in 1971. In 1973, Bremada merged with Teck.
Teck realized Casino was a world-class deposit in the 70s. But Casino was inactive in the 70s and 80s because the price of copper in the world was suppressed.
Archer and Cathro optioned in 1991 and transferred to Big Creek Resources. Big Creek did 21 drill holes that further confirmed mineralization. Pacific Sentinel Resources took over in 1992. In 1993, Pacific Sentinel did $7.2 million worth of diamond drilling. 127 holes were drilled. In 1994, another 117 holes were drilled. A prefeasability study was then started in 1994.
In 1997, Pacific Sentinel merged with another company to form Great Basin Gold. By this time, it was known there were three other porphyries. The property with the other three porphyries was optioned off to Wildrose Resources and this property became known as the Canada Creek property. The owner of Wildrose just sat on the property and did little work on it (he drilled about 4 or 5 holes on it in 2000). The guy's name is Bob Morton or something like that and he is a friend of Dale Corman's.
In 2002, the Casino property was optioned to CRS (Copper Resources) which was the beginning stages of WRN as we know it today. Casino Mining, WRN, and CRS are all connected.
First Trimark acquired CRS in 2003. Ross Beaty and Lumina Copper acquired CRS in 2005. And WRN acquired CRS in 2006 when it bought out Lumina from Beaty. Initially, WRN was run by Corman and Beaty when Beaty stepped down to focus solely on Pan American Silver.
Later, Corman bought back the Canadian Creek property to stop encroachment from Goldcorp/Newmont. The Canadian Creek property has three little explored porphyries on it. Two or three years ago, WRN/Casino Mining discovered a fifth porphyry on the main Casino property which straddles on White Gold property. The two companies will need to deal with that one day. Actually, a sixth porphyry was discovered just over a year ago to the south of us by Jack Milton, one of the best geologists in the Yukon. Jack Milton optioned it off to Cascadia Resources.
It makes perfect sense that all these porphyries are popping. These are orogenic mounds formed by hydrothermal vents thrusting up from below the earth's surface. Orogenic porphyries always occur in clusters. They happen where plates abutt creating tectonic activity. In our case, the tectonic activity took place over 70 million years ago.
In fact, they formed during the Cretaceous era, with a maximum age of 79 million years and a minimum age of 74 million years.
I am in no way suggesting Rio Tinto is interested in any porphyry other than Casino A. Personally, they have more than their hands full with that one porphyry. I am just saying there is a lot more out there to explore. Now is not the time. My own take is that Casino A (our main porphyry) is the motherlode of the whole region and Rio Tinto/Mitsubishi knows that.
Rio Tinto is under pressure. They have an 18 month agreement that expires June 12, 2025. If they don't make an agreement, someone else could march in and we'd be in the midst of a bidding war.