Gold Summary for April 18, 2017
2017-04-18 21:25 ET - Market Summary
by Stockwatch Business Reporter
Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. ( $OR : $15.34) and Eric Sprott's Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. ( $BGM ) dropped 16 cents to $1.01 on 5.86 million shares. Barkerville had jumped 25 cents to $1.17 Monday on assays of up to 19.2 grams of gold over 54.4 metres from its latest drilling at Island Mountain at its Cariboo gold project in British Columbia. A second hole among the seven currently completed also produced a promotable interval: 11.42 grams per tonne across 28.55 metres. Chris Lodder, president and chief executive officer, says that those two hoes are "widely separated intercepts that cannot be confidently corroborated" by other pierce points, so the geometry and true width of the potential zone "cannot be assuredly concluded" for now.
Mr. Lodder describes the latest drill hits as some of the best so far at Island Mountain, which he says continues to produce new zones of higher-grade mineralization across wide zones. Barkerville will follow up its latest high-grade hits with both wide-spaced expansion holes and close-spaced infill holes to better determine the dimensions of "this potentially strongly mineralized vein corridor," he adds. The company has drills to spare, as seven rigs are currently operating on Island Mountain while an eighth works elsewhere on the Cariboo property. (Barkerville proposes 130,000 metres of drilling in its phase 2 program on the project.)
Mr. Lodder is the fourth fellow to occupy Barkerville's corner office in the past two years. Frank Callaghan, who had been earning $240,000 per year as president and CEO, dashed off in the summer of 2015 ahead of regulatory scrutiny into some of his actions. His interim replacement, Norman Anderson, earned just $24,000 over the six months he filled the role -- which might be why he quit early last year. His replacement, Tom Obradovich, took the job at $300,000 per year but he lasted just six months as well. Unlike the unfortunate Mr. Anderson, both Mr. Callaghan and Mr. Obradovich got big severance cheques last year -- $480,000 for the former and $300,000 for the latter. It is unclear what Mr. Lodder is making, but since the company's salary payroll has increased again, he does not appear to have come cheaply.
