Tyhee gold exploration site scooped up
Purchase pending after company goes into receivership
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Friday, May 12, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
An advanced-stage gold exploration project north of the city was snapped up this week by a Vancouver company after Tyhee Gold Corp. went into receivership.
Tubing strings into the ramp decline opening at the Yellowknife Gold Project owned by Tyhee Developments. - Stephan Burnett/NNSL photo
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GoldMining Inc. has entered a purchase agreement for 100 per cent of the Yellowknife Gold Project and the nearby Big Sky Property, the company announced in a news release Wednesday.
The Yellowknife Gold Project is separate and unrelated to TerraX's Yellowknife City Gold Project, another gold exploration project closer to the city.
The Yellowknife Gold Project, about 50 to 90 kilometres north of Yellowknife, encompasses five deposits around Nicholas, Ormsby, Bruce, Goodwin and Clan Lakes. It includes 17 mining leases and eight mineral claims over an area of 89.35 square kilometres.
The purchase would include a 50-person exploration camp and equipment. The site is accessible by winter road from Yellowknife or a 1,000 metre airstrip.
The project was expected to include a 4,000-tonne-per-day processing plant, annual gold production of 104,000 ounces, and a mine life of 15 years, according a Tyhee feasibility study from 2012.
Big Sky is an earlier stage exploration property located about 17 kilometres north of the city.
Tyhee had been actively working on Yellowknife Gold until two years ago, when financial issues caused the camp to close and trade of its stock to be halted.
It announced it was seeking to find a company to purchase it in a news release last year but that search was unsuccessful.
Tyhee's lender, RMB Australia Holdings Inc., demanded Tyhee pay its debt and filed an application in British Columbia's Supreme Court.
On Tuesday, the court issued an order placing Tyhee in receivership, which means its assets will be sold off to pay its creditor. GoldMining Inc. announced the purchase agreement in a news release the day after the court order.
"This is very exciting news, as the project hosts significant gold mineralization," NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mine executive director Tom Hoefer stated in an e-mail about the purchase agreement.
The purchase remains subject to court and TSX Venture Exchange approvals.
No dollar figure for the purchase was provided, though GoldMining stated it would consist of 4 million common shares of the company. GoldMining Inc. was trading for $1.73 on the TSX Venture Exchange on Thursday.
A request for comment from GoldMining Inc. was not answered by press time.
GoldMining Inc. was previously called Brazil Resources Inc. until it was renamed in December last year.
The company focuses on acquisition, exploration and development of projects in Colombia, United States, Brazil, Canada and other regions of the Americas, according to a company news release that stated it had $21 million in cash on hand.
"We plan to continue our exceptional growth with additional low-cost acquisitions of high quality gold projects, to build value throughout this period of a weak gold price environment," stated board chairman Amir Adnani in the December news release.
"But given the anomalous gold there, one can be optimistic that there are mineable deposits hidden there somewhere," he stated. "This is great to hear that a company is interested, and can raise the money needed to explore the property further."
The Yellowknife Gold Project has a history of exploration dating back to the 1940s but has yet to reach the knowledge and understanding to reveal a mine, Hoefer stated.
