Barkerville Gold rallies on Cariboo resource estimate
One of the many past-producing mines from the 1800s on the large Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. Cariboo gold project property near Wells, British Columbia. Photo courtesy Vancouver Public Library.
Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. [BGM-TSXV; BGMZF-OTC; IWUB-FSE] shares were active Thursday May 3 after the company announced a maiden resource estimate for the Cow and Island Mountain deposits at its wholly-owned Cariboo gold project in Wells, near the restored historic gold rush town of Barkerville, east of Quesnel, British Columbia.
Barkerville shares jumped 7.5% or $0.05 to 62 cents on volume of over 1 million, making it one of the most active stocks on the TSX Venture Exchange on Friday morning.
The company said the underground mineral resource estimate incorporates the Cow Mountain and Valley Zones on Cow Mountain and Shaft Zone and Mosquito Creek on Island Mountain at a cut-off grade of 3.0 g/t gold.
It said the resource is defined over 6 km of Barkerville’s 67-km long land package.
Barkerville said the Cariboo Gold Project mineral resource is now estimated at 1.6 million ounces of gold in the measured and indicated category [8.1 million tonnes, grading 6.1 g/t gold]. On top of that is an inferred resource of 2.16 million ounces [12.7 million tonnes, grading 5.2 g/t gold].
The estimates for Cow and Island Mountain is based on over 210,000 metres of diamond drilling from Barkerville’s 2016 and 2017 drill campaigns, as well as historically verified drill data using a total of 2,328 drill holes.
“The mineral resource estimate is supported by a robust 3D litho-structured model of the gold-bearing vein corridors,” the company said in Thursday’s press release. “A strong understanding of the controls of mineralization enabled the company’s technical team to construct a mineral resource estimate constrained by lithology, alteration, structure and mineralization.”
Barkerville is focused on developing its extensive mineral rights package located in the historical Cariboo Mining District of central British Columbia. The company’s Cariboo Gold Project mineral tenures cover 1,950 km2, along a strike length of 67 km as noted above, 25 km wide, and includes several past producing placer and hard rock mines, making it one of the most well-endowed land packages in British Columbia.
“The discovery of this initial, robust, underground resource, coupled with our planned exploration decline at Cow and Island Mountain as well as unparalleled potential for significant resource expansion at depth and on strike, places Barkerville on a path to become a significant gold mining company in Western Canada,” said Barkerville President and CEO Chris Lodder.
The company said the mineral resource estimate was conducted by Talisker Exploration Services Inc. and validated by InnovExplo Inc., an independent consulting firm based out of Val-d’Or, Que.
The resource estimate announced on Thursday represents the first resource estimate on Cow and Island published by the new management team. Since the management change in mid-2015, the company says it has unlocked the fundamental structural controls of gold mineralization.