BMC Minerals expands Yukon portfolio with $3.6M Kona copper-gold deal

BMC Minerals has acquired 100% of the Kona copper-gold deposit from Pacific Ridge Exploration (TSXV: PEX) in southern Yukon as part of a $3.6-million deal.

In late March, BMC made a final payment of $400,000 to exercise its option over Pacific Ridge’s Fyre Lake claims, located about 20 km south of BMC’s flagship Kudz Ze Kayah zinc-lead-copper project. The Vancouver-based BMC, owned by private, U.K.-based firm BMC Ltd., had already paid about $2.2 million to Pacific Ridge since optioning Fyre Lake in 2016.

It must also pay $1 million after Kudz Ze Kayah (KZK) has been in commercial operation for one year.

“Our decision to exercise our option and acquire the PEX tenure reflects our ongoing commitment to make our Kudz Ze Kayah project the best it can be,” said BMC president Scott Donaldson in a release on Monday. “BMC is both optimistic and determined that we can deliver on the potential of our project to grow into a long-term, world-class producer of critical and other minerals and to also be a sustainable driver of economic opportunity for the local communities of Ross River and Watson Lake in the southeast Yukon.”

The Kona open pit and underground deposit hosts total indicated resources of 3 million tonnes grading 1.4% copper, 0.7 gram gold per tonne and 4 grams silver for contained metal amounts of 42,000 tonnes copper, 66,000 oz. gold and 373,000 oz. silver, according to a 2018 estimate.

Inferred resources total 7.5 million tonnes grading 1.7% copper, 0.6 gram gold and 4 grams silver for 130,000 tonnes of contained copper, 152,000 oz. gold and 852 oz. silver.

The announcement from BMC comes just two weeks after the end of a judicial hearing in Whitehorse that heard presentations related to a legal dispute centred on KZK.

Last June, KZK was approved by the federal and Yukon governments following an environmental and socio-economic assessment. Shortly afterwards, the Kaska Nation, on behalf of the Ross River Dena Council, announced a civil lawsuit against the two governments, alleging it wasn’t properly consulted over the mine’s potential adverse environmental impacts, including its impacts on the Finlayson caribou herd.

The RRDC wants the advancement of the project to be halted and for it to be re-designed.

A decision from the Yukon Supreme Court is expected before July.

Vancouver-based explorer Pacific Ridge holds several copper-gold projects in Yukon and British Columbia, including its flagship Kliyul property in north-central B.C.

Its shares traded at 23¢ in Toronto on Tuesday, in a 52-week window of 21¢ and 45¢, valuing the company at $25.3 million.