Green River Gold Corp. (CCR) (
CSE.CCR,
Forum) was founded in the summer of 2017 by a group of investors with experience doing placer mining in the Cariboo Mining District of British Columbia through a private corporation. The Company’s executive saw near term cash flow potential in the placer mining industry and also recognized the great potential for hard rock gold discoveries based on the rich mining history of the Cariboo District. With the assistance of locally based geological consultants and miners, the Company set out to find both placer and mineral properties with good potential.
The Company’s first property acquisition was on March 13, 2019 when the Company announced that it had entered into a letter of intent with an independent third party to acquire over 8,200 hectares of mineral rights and 640 hectares of placer rights situated 12 kilometers southwest of Barkerville, in the Cariboo Mining District of British Columbia, Canada. The Fontaine Gold Project straddles an 18-kilometer length of the Barkerville and Quesnel Terranes and are contiguous to Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd.’s (
TSX.OR) Cariboo Project (formerly Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd.) and adjacent other past producing mine sites. After due diligence was completed, the acquisition closed on August 23, 2019.
The timing of the acquisition may have been fortunate. One month after the acquisition closed, the area began to draw attention when the Company’s neighbour, Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd., was acquired by Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. for $335 million.
In addition, the price of gold has increased dramatically over the past year. Canadian dollar gold prices have increased from $1,741, when the acquisition was announced in March 2019, to $2,218 on March 31, 2020 – an increase of $477 or 27% over the year.
The Company is currently raising $1,000,000 through a non-brokered private placement to fund its planned exploration on the Fontaine mineral property.
CCR has just announced that it has also completed the purchase from an independent third party of 38.97 hectares of strategic placer rights (the “Property”) situated 12 kilometers southwest of Barkerville in the Cariboo Mining District of British Columbia, Canada. The Property lies within the boundaries of the Company’s existing 640 hectares of placer rights. The Property is underlain by the Company’s 8,200 hectares of mineral rights that are contiguous to Osisko Gold Royalties’ Cariboo Gold Project (formerly Barkerville Gold Mines).
The Company has also just announced that it has staked an additional 856 hectares of placer mining claims along Little Swift River at its Little Swift Gold Project in the historic Cariboo Mining District of British Columbia. This addition brings the total placer claim holdings at the Little Swift Gold Project to 1110.23 contiguous hectares of which the Company holds a 100 percent ownership. The claims are of strategic importance as they adjoin the Company’s existing placer holdings at the Little Swift Gold Project. The acquisition extends Green River Gold Corp.’s placer tenures to cover over 15 linear kilometers along the Little Swift River Valley.
While CCR is excited about the opportunity presented by their 82 square kilometres of mineral claims, the Company sees the potential to generate near term cash flow from “renting” their placer claims to other placer miners. The Company sees the rising costs of acquiring claims and the increasing cost of bonding as creating barriers to entry for new placer miners and experienced miners alike. CCR’s intention is to have an inventory of placer claims that are permitted for various sized operations and charge a cash “rent” to mine the properties. Their experience with various joint venture and royalty agreements has convinced them that enforcing a royalty on a placer claim is an extremely difficult thing to accomplish. Charging a fixed cash “rent” will generate a certain level of income from the claim while leaving the actual mining risk with the operator.
CCR also operates a mining equipment and supplies store from its office location in Quesnel in the heart of the Cariboo Mining District. The store is also online at
greenrivergoldstore.ca. An affiliated private company builds larger mining equipment like trommels and sells them under the Green River Gold Corp. brand.
CCR’s business plan is to generate short term income from “renting” placer mining claims and providing services to placer miners while continuing to explore its 82 square kilometre mineral property. All the Company’s employees and consultants are local people from the Quesnel area. The Company’s diverse operations allow for year-round employment for local residents. Placer mining is a seasonal business that typically runs for May through September or October.
Being able to offer year-round employment allows the Company to keep skilled employees for the long term. The current environment for placer mining is the best that it has been in decades. One of the prime determinants of success in placer mining is the ratio of the gold price to the oil price. That ratio is currently near an all time high. Historically, placer mining tends to enjoy a resurgence during times of economic dislocation.
A Time and “Place” for Mining
Placer mining may sound old school, but it offers a number of advantages for investors. The amount of income generated can be controlled while assets are accumulated. The gold mined from production can be inventoried and it does not become income until it is sold. Thus, gold sales can be made when it is advantageous to do so. Other placer mining benefits include:
- All production costs and exploration expenses can be written off against income.
- Royalties on gold production paid to the Canadian government are exceptionally low – approximately 40 cents per ounce of gold produced.
- The royalty rate is only 22 percent, based on gold valued at $15 per ounce, the value of gold at the time of the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898.
- Canadian laws do not restrict the export of gold.
- Unlike hard rock gold mining, placer mining projects can be put into production within a year or as little as a few months.
- The amount of capital required to start a placer mining operation is also relatively low. The result of these two factors is that placer mining projects can generate cash flow within a short time frame.
- Thus, it is financially feasible for individual retail investors and less capital intrusive for small companies to own a producing placer gold mine.
About Green River Gold Corp.
CCR is headquartered in Edmonton Alberta with an office and retail mining supplies store in the heart of the Cariboo Mining District in Quesnel, British Columbia.
CCR’s focus is on the acquisition and development of placer mining claims and mineral claims. The Company has claims available for sale or “rent” and provides everything that a do-it-yourself placer miner requires. A one-stop miner’s shop, Green River Gold is also involved, through an affiliate, in manufacturing large equipment for the placer mining industry.
Photo courtesy Green River Gold Corp.
The management team at Green River Gold Corp. believes that the economics for placer mining in BC are favourable and should remain so for some time. Historically, when the gold price is high relative to the price of oil, as is currently the case, the potential for profit in gold mining increases. This is especially true in Western Canada, where low oil prices have led to a slowdown in the fossil fuel sector. This, in turn, has led to more favourable input costs for placer mining, not just for the energy itself, but also for manpower and equipment.
The Company believes that these conditions are already leading to a renewed interest in gold mining in B.C. and that now is the time to acquire strategic investments in the placer mining industry.
Photo courtesy Green River Gold Corp
.
In the News
On March 3, 2020, Green River Gold Corp. announced that it has entered into an agreement with an independent third party to acquire the placer rights to two separate placer gold projects in the vicinity of the Company’s current Fontaine placer gold project.
On March 13, 2019, the Company announced that it has entered into a letter of intent with an independent third party to acquire over 8,200 hectares of mineral rights and 640 hectares of placer rights situated 12 kilometers southwest of Barkerville, in the Cariboo Mining District of British Columbia, Canada. The properties straddle an 18-kilometer length of the Barkerville and Quesnel Terranes and are contiguous to Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. mineral claim group and adjacent other past producing mine sites.
The Company currently controls a 100 percent interest in the flagship
Fontaine Gold Project, a 100 percent interest in the Little Swift Gold Project, and a 100 percent interest in the Sovereign Gold Project. The 8,200-hectare Fontaine Gold Project is situated 12 kilometers southwest of the historic gold mining town of Barkerville, B.C. The property includes both placer and hard-rock tenures. The properties straddle an 18- kilometer length of the Barkerville and Quesnel Terranes and are contiguous to Osisko Gold Royalties’ Cariboo Gold Project – formerly Barkerville Gold Mines. Green River Gold also distributes equipment for the placer mining industry from its facility in the heart of the Cariboo mining district in Quesnel, BC.
FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by Stockhouse Publishing.