Golden Predator Mining Corp. May 3 announced the termination of an agreement to acquire Viva Gold Corp., a junior exploration company advancing the Tonopah gold property in Nevada.

Under an agreement announced in early March, Golden Predator would have acquired all Viva shares by issuing 1.6 shares in exchange for each Viva share. This transaction would have brought two near-development gold projects – Tonopah and Golden Predator's Brewery Creek mine project in the Yukon – under one roof. The two companies envisioned the emerging Golden Predator as a stronger company due to a more diversified project and jurisdictional portfolio, robust balance sheet, and combined management skillsets.

Viva Gold President and CEO James Hesketh was to lead the merged management team.

While neither company has offered specifics on the reasons for terminating the merger, both said the decision is mutual and no termination fees are to be paid as a result of the joint decision. The decision, however, may be related to a separate Golden Predator transaction with C2C Gold Corp., a company formerly known as Taku Gold Corp. with gold exploration properties in Newfoundland and the Yukon.

Golden Predator is planning to distribute 8.62 million C2C Gold shares to Golden Predator shareholders by way of a return of capital transaction.

Golden Predator Mining CEO Janet Lee-Sheriff serves as the chairman of the recently restructured C2C Gold.

Golden Predator says it will continue to focus on advancing the Brewery Creek gold mine project through the permitting renewal process.

A road-accessible project about 35 miles (55 kilometers) east of Dawson City, Brewery Creek is the home to a mine that produced roughly 280,000 ounces of gold over seven years of mining that began in 1996.

The licenses for this operation have been maintained and Golden Predator plans to use them to resume operations at the former mine.

Earlier this year, the company submitted applications to renew the water use and quartz mining licenses for Brewery Creek, which would otherwise expire at the end of this year.

Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in First Nation has submitted letters to the Yukon Water Board and the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board in support of the timely renewal of these licenses.

A feasibility study underway is detailing plans for a phased resumption of mining at Brewery Creek.

As currently envisioned, the initial phase of the renewed operation would involve the reprocessing of material on the heap leach pad, which hosts roughly 248,000 oz of unrecovered gold, and newly mined oxide ore from areas of the Brewery Creek property already permitted for mining.

According to a calculation completed in August, Brewery Creek hosts 22.2 million metric tons of indicated leachable resource averaging 1.11 grams per metric ton (789,000 ounces) gold, plus 16.8 million metric tons of inferred leachable resource at 0.92 g/t (497,000 oz) gold.

A 32-hole drill program completed last fall focused primarily on expanding and upgrading these resources ahead of the feasibility study.

Brewery Creek also hosts 30.6 million metric tons of inferred sulfide resource at 0.84 g/t (828,000 oz) gold, which will be considered for mining in later phases of Brewery Creek operations.

A second expansion phase of the operation is expected to include potential mining of the sulfide resources and gold mineralization identified outside of the area that falls under the permits from Viceroy-era mining.

The phased mining plan at Brewery Creek is expected to be further detailed in the feasibility study, which is slated for completion just after mid-year.

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Shane Lasley, Publisher

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

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