Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX: V.BGM, Stock Forum) President and Chief Executive Officer Frank Callaghan said Tuesday he is hopeful that the British Columbia Securities Commission will soon agree to lift a cease trading order that has been in place for more than eight months.
“We are hoping to see it removed next week,’’ said Callaghan, during the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Vancouver. (Callaghan is pictured below).
Back on August 15, 2012, the BCSC ordered all trading in Barkerville to stop until the company files a NI 43-101-compliant technical report that is acceptable to the regulator. It said the report should address all technical disclosure concerns about the junior’s disclosure of a change in mineral resources on key parts of its Cariboo gold property in central British Columbia.
The regulator stepped in after Barkerville issued a news release on June 29, 2012, stating that an area encompassing about 10% of its Cariboo project could host up to 90 million ounces of gold, including nearly 11 million ounces in an area known as Cow Mountain.
The estimate, which is based on a technical report by consultant Peter T. George of Canmore, Alta., drove Barkerville shares to $1.67 to in early July, eventually sparking complaints that the company was allowed to release such outlandish numbers and not be held accountable for weeks.
However, Dave McMillan, a Barkerville director who chaired Tuesday’s annual meeting on Tuesday, said that even if the cease trading order is lifted, any resumption of trading could not proceed without the consent of the TSX Venture Exchange.
Meanwhile, Callaghan was scolded yesterday by a Stockhouse poster who wrote to express thoughts about the annual meeting. “My overall takeaway was we have a huge land package with some good/great prospects that require a lot more work,’’ wrote thasis in a Barkerville post.
Still, the Stockhouse poster said Callaghan would be well advised to focus on passing the BCSC requirements and getting relisted on the exchange “first!!!”