Westhaven Gold names Eira Thomas as Chair, shares up 18%
Westhaven Gold Inc. [WHN-TSXV] has named Eira Thomas as Chairperson and director, effective January 24, 2024. Westhaven is a gold-focused exploration company advancing a high-grade discovery on the Shovelnose project in Canada’s newest gold district, the Spences Bridge Gold Belt near Merritt, British Columbia.
On Monday, Westhaven shares jumped 18.2% or $0.03 to 19.5 cents. The shares currently trade in a 52-week range of 37.5 cents and 15.5 cents.
Thomas is succeeding her father Grenville Thomas, a former Welsh coal miner who is best known for his role in discovering one of Canada’s richest diamond deposits in the Northwest Territories. At the time of the Diavik diamond discovery in 1992, Thomas was running Aber Resources Ltd.
“Eira has had great success in the junior mining space, most notably leading the sale of Kaminak Gold to Goldcorp (now Newmont Corp. [NGT-TSX, NEM-NYSE]) for $520 million in 2016,” said Westhaven President and CEO Gareth Thomas. “Her experience in the resource sector is invaluable, and we welcome her vision and drive.’’
In an advisory capacity, Gren Thomas will continue to play an integral role with Westhaven.
Westhaven holds a 100% interest in over 37,000 hectares of ground on four gold properties within the Spences Bridge Gold Belt (SBGB), an area that the company believes is highly prospective for epithermal type gold mineralization.
All of the four properties are located to the west of Teck Resources Ltd.’s (TECK.B-TSX, TECK.A-TSX, TECK-NYSE) Highland Valley Copper New Gold Inc. (NGD-TSX, NYSE American) New Afton mine.
The SBGB is a 110-kilometre northwest-trending belt of intermediate to felsic volcanic rocks dominated by the Cretaceous Spences Bridge Group. Talisker Resources Ltd. [CSE-TSK, TSKFF-OTCQB] and Westhaven have a combined control of 86% of the SBGB [225,000 hectares]. Any ground acquired by Talisker within five-kilometres of Westhaven’s existing properties is subject to a 2.5% net smelter return royalty.
The 17,542-hectare Shovelnose property is located near the southern end of the SBGB and borders a major B.C. highway known as the Coquihalla. The proximity to highway infrastructure permits year-round exploration at the property.
The location of its properties in southwestern British Columbia means they are easily accessible by road (2.5 hours from Vancouver) and amenable to low-cost exploration.
In 2023, Westhaven completed multiple exploration programs across its properties on the Spence Bridge Gold Belt, which resulted in the identification of several new gold mineralized areas of interest, the company has said. At the Shovelnose, drilling has outlined a gold mineralized corridor between Line 6, Southeast FMN, and the MIK zones where multiple vein and structures appear to coalesce.