Mining News: Northern Neighbors: BCGold deal for Gorilla project in Yukon crumbles

BCGold Corp. March 28 said it will not be acquiring the Wels gold property in western Yukon Territory. In January, BCGold had entered into an agreement with Gorilla Minerals Corp. to acquire full ownership of Wels, subject to a 3 percent net smelter return royalty. To acquire the Wels property, BCGold was to pay C$60,000 in cash and issue 8 million of its shares to Gorilla, following a 5-1 consolidation of BCGold shares. After consolidation its shares on Feb. 29, BCGold has 8.3 million shares issued. BCGold said Gorilla rejected a request for an extension to the March 31 deadline to close the Wels property deal, as a result of which the transaction will not proceed. The Wels gold property is located 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of the community of Beaver Creek, located on the Alaska-Yukon border. The property hosts a newly discovered reduced intrusion-related gold mineralizing system, similar in age and style to Kinross Gold’s Fort Knox deposit in Alaska and Victoria Gold’s Eagle Gold project in central Yukon. Gorilla picked up the Wels property in 2011 and since has identified a number of promising zones, including the Saddle zone where rock samples from four trenches excavated in 2014 averaged 2.63 grams per metric ton gold over 19 meters; 5.3 g/t gold over 18 meters; 0.56 g/t gold over 25.5 meters; and 1.27 g/t gold over 25.5 meters. In 2015, Gorilla completed five holes at the Saddle zone, the first holes drilled at Wels. The best intercept of this drilling cut 25.5 meters averaging 2.41 g/t gold in the first hole of the program.

- Shane Lasley