Laramide gets gold property for coming spin-off

Laramide Resources (LAM-T) is looking to gain a flagship property for its yet to be created gold spin-off company which it says will be called NewGoldCo.

The Toronto-based company most known for its uranium project in Australia, is looking to add the Thunder Lake properties in Ontario to its gold assets buy paying current joint venture owners Corona Gold (CRG-T) and Teck Cominco (TCK.A-T, TCK.B-T) $18 million and giving the companies a 12.77% stake in the newly created gold company once it is listed.

Thunder Lake is contiguous to Laramide’s Goliath property in Zealand Township, Ontario.

Laramide says Thunder Lake West was explored by the Corona-Teck Cominco joint venture from 1993 until 1998 when over 250 diamond drill holes were completed.

Corona reported a non 43-101 compliant inferred resource of roughly 630,000 oz. of gold from 3 million tonnes of ore grading 6.5 grams gold.

Other non-uranium assets being transferred to NewGoldCo are the Lara polymetallic property in British Columbia, the net smelter return royalty on the producing Cerro Colorado gold mine in Mexico, and various shares in public and private entities held by Laramide including one million shares of Aquiline Resources (AQI-T).

The company says a minimum of $2 million in cash will also be transferred to NewGoldCo.

The deal with Corona and Teck is contingent upon Laramides completing a due diligence review of the properties which it has 30 days to do.

Laramide says the spin off will improve the valuation of its properties, enhance its ability to divest properties through simpler corporate ownership, and will allow it to separately finance various assets thus reducing stock dilution.

Laramides lead project is currently the Westmoreland uranium project in Queensland, Australia. The company has roughly 53 million shares outstanding.

In Toronto on April 3 its shares were up nearly 6% or 85 to $15.15 on roughly 520,000 shares traded.