SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Tyhee NWT Corporation (TSX-V:TDC) is scrambling after a lack of funds meant it was unable to complete the audit of its financial statements, causing a halt in trades of its shares, and the company had to close down its Yellowknife Gold Project campsite.
Tyhee Development Corporation's chief geologist, Val Pratico, stands outside of the Ormsby Portal at the company's Yellowknife Gold Project in 2005. The company recently shut the site down after running out of money, resulting in an inability to audit its financial statements and trading of its shares halted on the Toronto Stock Exchange. - photo courtesy of Tyhee Development Corporation
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Spokesman Greg Taylor said both its year-end and quarterly statements were affected by the lack of funds.
"The (Toronto) Venture Exchange gives you a period of grace, we passed it," he told Yellowknifer from Vancouver. "We didn't have enough money to pay the auditors."
On May 28, the company informed the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board that the campsite would be shut down until further notice after being in care and maintenance status "for some time." Taylor said this was almost two years, and only two people were still there.
"What we're waiting for is some combination of an opportunity to raise more money and frankly a bit of a turnaround in the market," he said.
In the letter e-mailed to the board, chairman Denis Taschuk cited the mineral sector's decline in commodity prices and "extremely difficult capital markets" as the main reasons why the company found itself without funds.
Even with two staff members there, the campsite of the Yellowknife Gold Project was still costing Tyhee money it couldn't afford and so the company's board of directors decided to shut everything down "with the plan that if and when we are financially in a position to go back in, we will," Taylor said, calling the site's current conditions safe and shut down properly.
Even with this current situation, Taylor said that Tyhee is still currently looking to raise money in both the short term, so they can pay for basic administrative costs, and longer-term with the hope of buying Sutter Gold. "The only thing I can say is we're on advanced discussions with a couple of groups to cover both of those," he said. "But I can't say whether they will be concluded, or whether we'll be successful."
Taylor cited the recent pullback in investment in junior exploration companies like Tyhee, and the fall in commodity prices for resources like gold and copper. "Even big companies like Barrick (Gold) have been hit."
When it comes to the question of who's answering phones at Tyhee's head office in Vancouver and whether Taylor himself is being paid, the company's manager of investor relations was blunt. "Not everyone has been paid or is getting a paycheque. But we're still working. No one's making any money."
He was also cautious when asked if about concerns the company could now be declared a complete bust.
"Tyhee isn't dead yet," Taylor said. "But that could change. Nothing is guaranteed until the money's in the bank."
When shares of the company were halted on June 4 by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the price of Tyhee's stock was one cent.
