Carlson Mines delisted, now a shell

I am looking for information on Carlson Mines. Does this company still exist? Can you share with me the latest information pertaining to it?

Richard Spooner, Ottawa

Carlson Mines, originally incorporated in Quebec in 1937, was reactivated in 1982 around the time of the Hemlo gold rush in northern Ontario. A 1983 public offering set it up in business, and excitement surrounding the Hemlo discovery took it to a high of $1.16 that year.

At that time, its principal land holdings were in the Pic River area near Marathon, Ont., in the Hemlo gold belt, and in the Swayze gold belt between Sudbury and Timmins. It optioned part of its Pic River property to Laurasia Resources, which earned a 25% interest, and subsequently to Noranda, which seems to have dropped out of the deal in 1987 or so. The Pic claims were consolidated into a single 500-claim land package, and Carlson was diluted to a 36% stake. Another junior, Black Gregor Explorations (now Aavdex [YAA-V]), took up an option to earn a 45% interest in the ground.

By 1988, Carlson had a 40% holding, Black Gregor had 60%, and the two had done a deal allowing another exploration company, Vancouver-based Nexus Resource, to earn a half-interest in part of the claims.

The last mention of Carlson Mines in The Northern Miner was in December 1989, when they advised Black Gregor (by then renamed Gregor Goldfields) that they didn’t have money for further work on the Hemlo and Swayze claim blocks. At that time, Carlson had a 40% interest in Hemlo and a 50% interest in Swayze. Those interests seem to have survived until 1997, when Gregor Goldfields apparently got full ownership of the claims.

It is recorded in documents that Gregor Goldfields filed with securities regulators that Gregor and Carlson had to go to court to maintain their interest in the Hemlo-area claims. Aavdex, Gregor’s successor, later dropped the Hemlo property but retains the Swayze ground.

Carlson was delisted by the Vancouver Stock Exchange in July 1989, but trading records indicate it had no market for its shares from early in August 1988. The VSE had suspended Carlson in 1988, and in January of the following year, the exchange issued an order that the company must submit a reactivation plan in three months. That plan was never submitted, and so the company was delisted.

The year-end trading records from the VSE show a closing price of 13 per share some time in 1988.

Management tried to get Carlson quoted on the COATS over-the-counter system after the VSE delisted it, but Carlson never surfaced on COATS. So it seems the last recorded trade in Carlson shares was the 13 trade on the VSE in 1988.

The last Carlson entry in the Canadian Mines Handbook is from 1994, when it was listed as “inactive.”

Nothing has been heard of Carlson since 1994. It is not a reporting issuer in any Canadian province. There is no record up to 1999 that the company’s charter has been cancelled, so the corporate shell still existed at that time.

Burnbel Syndicate probably defunct

My aunt and my grandfather each bought 10 units of Burnbel Prospecting Syndicate back on May 15, 1944. The certificate is signed by John Wedderburn, and the accompanying map shows Lebel Twp., up by Kirkland Lake. My father is in possession of the certificates and asked me to find out if they have any value. Are these 20 units considered stocks?

Frank Morris, Southampton, Ont.

We have little information on prospecting syndicates, which were unincorporated partnerships rather than legally recognized companies. Luckily, there was some record in two editions of the Mines Register.

Burnbel Prospecting Syndicate was in operation in the 1940s, but by the 1960s it had become inactive. Normally syndicates simply ran out of money and allowed their claims to lapse.

We can’t be sure that there was never a distribution of assets to the participants in the syndicate (perhaps from vending the Lebel property to a company), but it seems unlikely there is any value left in the syndicate’s units.