LISTING – Wellgreen Platinum Ltd. Dec. 3 announced that its common shares have been approved for listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Effective at market opening on Dec. 4, 2014, Wellgreen shares began trading on the TSX under the symbol WG. Concurrent with the TSX listing, Wellgreen Platinum shares were de-listed from the TSX Venture Exchange. Wellgreen President and CEO Greg Johnson said, “Graduating from the TSX Venture Exchange to the TSX senior board, Canada’s premier exchange, is a major milestone in the growth and development of Wellgreen Platinum and reflects the significant advancement of the company’s flagship Wellgreen (platinum group metal-nickel-copper) project over the past two years. The TSX is recognized globally as a leading market for the resource industry and should provide Wellgreen Platinum with greater visibility, trading liquidity and broader access to the capital markets and investors.” Wellgreen Platinum Ltd. is focused on advancing toward production its Wellgreen PGM-nickel-copper project located in southwestern Yukon Territory.
ANNUAL MEETING – New Pacific Metals Corp. Dec. 3 reported that all matters placed before the shareholders at its annual general meeting held on Dec. 1, 2014, were approved. The voting report of the annual general meeting is available for review on Sedar. New Pacific is a Canadian gold and silver exploration and development company, which owns the Tagish Lake gold project in Yukon Territory and the RZY Project in Qinghai Province, China.
GOLD – Golden Predator Mining Corp. Dec. 2 reported the completion of metallurgical testing on three large volume samples collected from the Sleeping Giant zone on the 3 Aces property in eastern Yukon Territory. Overall gold recoveries for the three samples were reported at 98.3 percent, 97.9 percent and 93.5 percent. The results of the metallurgical testing show that high overall gold recoveries can be achieved by simple initial gravity methods followed by cyanide leaching of the tails. The processing of the samples was conducted by grinding the entire sample in batches of 10 kilograms to a target grind size of 80 percent passing 200 microns. After grinding, the sample was fed through a Knelson concentrator for gold recovery. The results show the gravity gold recoveries at this grind size ranged from 74.6 to 88.5 percent. A split of the gravity tails from each sample was then ground to 80 percent passing 75 microns and subjected to cyanide leaching. Gold extraction from the tails ranged from 74.3 to 90.2 percent. The final test results also provided evidence that the use of a screen metallic assay method with a 2,000-gram or so pulp (80 percent passing 150 mesh) is an appropriate method to obtain reliable gold grades from exploration and development samples. The 3 Aces property consists of 1,108 contiguous quartz claims located along the Nahanni Range Road, which accesses the operational Cantung Mine located 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the north. Previous sampling and exploration by Golden Predator (formerly Northern Tiger) has outlined extensive gold-in-soil anomalies over nine square kilometers (3.5 square miles) at 3 Aces, including numerous high-grade gold showings.
POLYMETALLIC – Silver Range Resources Ltd. Dec. 2 said it has completed and filed the NI 43-101 report titled, “Technical Report on the Mel Zinc-Lead-Barite Property, Watson Lake Mining District, Southeast Yukon.” The Mel Report can be viewed under the Silver Range profile at www.sedar.com or on the Silver Range website. The Mel Report was prepared by Gary Giroux, P. Eng., M.A.Sc. (Giroux Consultants Ltd.) and Leo King, P. Geo., both of whom are independent qualified persons as defined in National Instrument 43-101. The Mel Property lies 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Watson Lake and 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the Alaska Highway. The Mel report contains a resource estimate for the Mel Main Zone which hosts an inferred resource of 5.38 million tons grading 6.45 percent zinc, 1.85 percent lead and 44.79 percent barite (BaSO4), at a cut-off grade of 5.0 percent zinc-equivalent. The zinc-equivalent was calculated using metal prices of US$0.89/lb. zinc and US$0.96/lb. lead and assuming 90.3 percent zinc recovery and 97.7 percent lead recovery. As also announced Nov. 12, Silver Range has commissioned a barite marketing study by World Industrial Minerals Inc., of Arvada, Colo. The barite marketing study concluded that barite from the Mel Property could likely be sold into the drilling products market in Western Canada and Alaska. Based on current demand, WIM estimated that sales of 50,000 metric tons per year at $US100/metric ton would be reasonable into the Western Canadian market. The study also recommended that further work be conducted to verify that impurity levels meet specifications. The next phase of work by Silver Range on the Mel property will likely include detailed drilling at the Mel Main Zone to define an indicated resource; and exploration drilling at Mel Main and other zones on the property to further evaluate and expand resource potential. All future work will include various environmental, heritage and geotechnical studies necessary to advance the project.
LEGISLATION – The president of a company planning a mine in Yukon Territory is asking the federal, Yukon, and First Nations governments to “find a solution to address the outstanding issues within Bill S-6,” according to a Dec. 2 news report. CBC News said it has obtained a copy of a letter from Paul West-Sells, president of the Casino Mining Corp., to Canadian Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt. Bill S-6 is currently before Parliament and would amend Yukon’s Socio-economic and Environmental Assessment Act. In the letter, West-Sells asks Valcourt to recognize the company’s concerns about “the fragility of intergovernmental relations in the Yukon surrounding Bill S-6 and the negative impact this is having on the territory’s mineral industry.” West-Sells said it is “imperative” that YESAA has the “broad support” of all governments, “to ensure the confidence of both project proponents and Yukon residents in the YESAA process and to facilitate investment in the territory,” CBC News said.
COPPER – Western Copper and Gold Corp. Nov. 28 reported that the Yukon Environmental and Socioeconomic Assessment Board has resumed its review of the Casino copper project. The review process was put on hold at the request of Western Copper’s subsidiary, Casino Mining Corp., as part of a settlement agreement with Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation. Casino Mining and Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation have completed the consultation program outlined in the agreement and have entered into further agreements to continue consultation throughout the YESAB assessment process. Also in accordance with the agreement, Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation has withdrawn the petition it had filed with the Yukon Supreme Court seeking judicial review of YESAB’s decision that consultation, prior to CMC filing its project proposal, was adequate. “We are pleased about the restart of the YESAB review,” said Casino Mining President Paul West-Sells. “This hold period has allowed us to further consult and develop our relationship with directly affected First Nations. This period has also given us time to develop a comprehensive reply to questions raised during the first part of the YESAB review.”
GOLD/COPPER/COBALT – Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. Nov. 26 provided an update on its Mariposa gold project and its Fyre Lake copper-gold-cobalt massive sulphide project, under option to Merah Resources Ltd., in Yukon Territory. At Mariposa, Pacific Ridge has exercised its option with the underlying vendors and now owns a 100 percent interest in the project, subject to a 2 percent NSR royalty, half of which can be purchased by the company for $1 million. Mariposa has seen more than $6 million in exploration expenditures since 2010. At the Skookum Main zone, 14 of 18 drill holes intersected gold mineralization, with the best hole encountering 2.44 grams per metric ton gold over 39 meters. Subsequent interpretation of surface sampling and detailed geophysical studies suggest that the structure containing this intersection is open along strike in both directions. In addition, deep soil sampling at Skookum West, located 1.5 kilometers to the west of Skookum Main, encountered two significantly anomalous values of 3.5 g/t gold and 7.2 g/t gold (from a total of 47 samples, ranging from three parts per billion to 7.2 g/t), indicating the potential for a new high-grade gold discovery. In addition to the Skookum Main and Skookum West zones, four other high-priority targets (Big Alex, Maisy Mae, Hackly and Alberta Creek) have been defined by gold and multi-element soil geochemical anomalies within the Mariposa Fault Zone. Mariposa Project details can be found at: http://www.pacificridgeexploration.com/s/mariposa.asp. At Fyre Lake, Merah recently reported the results of a check assay program on quartered drill core from Pacific Ridge’s 1996 and 1997 drill programs on the Kona deposit. The check assays show good agreement with the previous Pacific Ridge results, with an average 2.7 percent increase in copper, 12 percent increase in cobalt and 0.1 percent increase in gold. Complete details of the check assay program are provided in Merah’s news release of Nov. 19, 2014 (see http://www.pacificridgeexploration.com/s/fyre_lake.asp). Based on the known project geology and prior drill results, coupled with Merah’s recently completed airborne VTEM geophysical survey, Merah believes there is excellent potential to increase the size of the Kona resource as well as to discovery additional mineralized zones. Outside targets include a four-kilometer-long VTEM anomaly located northeast of Kona and a three-kilometer-long VTEM anomaly lying west of Kona, both anomalies based on magnetic and conductive electromagnetic trends. The results of a NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate of the Kona deposit completed in 2002 and reported in 2006 include an indicated mineral resource of 3.571 million metric tons grading 1.57 percent copper, 0.10 percent cobalt and 0.61 g/t gold at a 1 percent copper cut-off grade. An inferred mineral resource, at the same cut-off grade, includes 5.361 million tons grading 1.48 percent copper, 0.08 percent cobalt and 0.53 g/t gold.
