GLOBAL SEARCH FOR GOLD — Goldcorp bids for rest of Wilanour

Having previously failed to gain a stake in Wilanour Resources’ (WLR-T) holdings near Red Lake, Ont., Goldcorp (G.A-T) has launched a takeover bid for the junior company.

Goldcorp has offered $1.40 for each share of Wilanour, or a trade in which six Wilanour shares could buy one Class A share of Goldcorp, plus one warrant to purchase a second Class A share at $10. With Goldcorp trading in the $8 range at presstime, the warrant is out of the money, and the share swap values Wilanour at or near $1.33.

Goldcorp owns 2.4 million Wilanour shares or 44% of the company, bought for $1.2 million from TVX Gold (tvx-t) in late 1996. In the autumn of 1996, Goldcorp, backed by TVX, offered $3 million to buy the Cochenour-Willans mine property at the eastern end of Red Lake, plus Wilanour’s 30% interest in a joint venture over several properties in the Red Lake area. However, TVX and Goldcorp could not assemble the proxies needed to approve the deal at Wilanour’s annual meeting, and the deal fell through.

Goldcorp has made it a condition of its new bid that the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (owner of 18% of Wilanour) tender its shares to Goldcorp.

At the opposite end of Red Lake, a series of channel samples at a property first explored by Cochenour-Willans Gold Mines, Wilanour’s predecessor, has returned high gold grades over narrow widths.

Property operator Redbird Gold (rbd.a-a) reported grades of 15.6 to 34.4 grams gold per tonne in channel samples from seven outcrops around a quartz-carbonate vein showing at Bridget Lake. The gold mineralization had widths of 0.35 to 0.8 metres at surface.

In the sampling program, Redbird investigated vein material, the adjacent wall rock, and outcrops of altered rock surrounding the vein showings.

Results showed lower gold values in the surrounding rock, and grab samples also returned high gold values.

The property was first explored in 1936, when Cochenour-Willans sampled the same showing. Channel samples at the time returned 22.9 grams gold over a 4.8-metre width.