One of British Columbia’s fabled gold mining camps is once again producing the yellow metal.
Bralorne Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX V.BPM, Stock Forum), a company financed by B.C. financier Maxwell Munday celebrated this milestone on May 26, 2011 by holding an opening day celebration at the Bralorne mine site, about 240 kilometres north of Vancouver.
The party attendees -- including TSX Venture Exchange President John McCoach, and Steve Carr, B.C.’s Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines,-- were set to travel by helicopter to watch the first dore bar being poured on Friday.
“We have enough ore to keep us going there for about two years,’’ said Bralorne’s 80-year-old President Bill Kocken during a telephone interview with Stockhouse.
Kocken said the gold pour is the culmination of about 12 years of work, a program that featured underground bulk sampling, 34,000 feet of drilling, and the refurbishment of the mill.
Before production shut down in 1971, the Bridge River/Bralorne camp produced almost four million ounces of gold, making it the leading source of gold in B.C.
The camp consists of five former mines, including two large gold producers, Bralorne and Pioneer and three small producers, Wayside, Minto and Congress. The mines are located about 100 kilometres west of Lillooet and 10 kilometres south of the village of Gold Bridge.
Vancouver-based Bralorne is resuming production after stockpiling material that was extracted from an area between the former Bralorne and Pioneer mines.
Starting at 120 tonnes per day, that material will be processed at a newly refurbished milling facility that is being expanded to enable it to operate at a rate of 280 tonnes per day.
At that rate, the operation is expected to produce about 6,000 ounces of gold annually.
Kocken said the company is financed by Maxwell Munday, Bralorne’s largest single shareholder. He currently controls 9.9 million shares or 34% of the company as a result of a recent financing that will potentially raise the number of shares outstanding to 28.4 million.
After closing at $1.41 on Thursday, Bralorne has a market value of $32 million, based on the 23 million shares that are currently outstanding. The stock trades in a 52-week range of $1.56 and 84 cents.
“I just think it is kind of an overlooked story. At least that’s what I’m hoping,’’ said Munday.
Through his company Munday Home Sales, Maxwell Munday holds shares in a number of mining companies. In addition to Bralorne, his portfolio includes San Gold Corp. (TSX: T.SGR, Stock Forum), Metanor Resources Inc. (TSX: V. MTO, Stock Forum), Claude Resources Inc. (TSX: T.CRJ, Stock Forum), Integra Gold Corp. (TSX: V.ICG, Stock Forum), Alexco Resource Corp. (TSX: T.AXR, Stock Forum).
Munday said he began investing in Bralorne because he thought the stock was undervalued. His said he was influenced by the fact that the Pioneer and Bralorne mines shut down in 1971, a time when gold was trading at US$35 an ounce. “It wasn’t because they were running out of gold,’’ he said.
Bralorne is hosting the launch party on a week when gold was trading at US$1,521.70 an ounce.
Munday has been financing the company by participating in private placements. For example, two months ago, he acquired another 400,000 units of Bralorne at $1.30 per unit, documents show. Each unit consists of one previously unissued non-flow through common share and one half of a non-flow through share purchase warrant.
One warrant entitles the holder to purchase an additional common share for a period of six months at an exercise price of $1.50.
“I am disappointed that it has taken so long to get to this stage,’’ he said. “But even though it’s late, I’m delighted that we finally got there.’’
On May 4, 2011, the company said it started the 2011 exploration program at Bralorne.
The program features underground exploration on the new BK-3 zone (between the former Bralorne and King mines), which involves driving a drift for about 300 metres into the zone and conducting 3,300 metres of underground and 4,600 metres of surface drilling.
However, now that the site is finally back in production, he is hoping that the investment community will sit up and take notice.
The Bralorne mine site covers 2,490 hectares on properties that were assembled by company founder and Chairman Lou Wolfin. A former stockbroker, Wolfin is associated with a number of companies under the Oniva International Service Corp. umbrella, including Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX: V.ASM, Stock Forum), and Coral Gold Resources Ltd. (TSX: V.CLH, Stock Forum).
For the time being, Wolfin is leaving Kocken in charge of the day-to-day operations. However, Munday said he believes the veteran Bralorne President will start to take more of a back seat role once the expansion of the mill is complete.