Laramide preparing for gold spin-off

Back in April Laramide Resources (LAM-T) announced it would spin-off its non-uranium assets into a company only known as “NewGoldCo”.

To ready for the spin-off the Toronto-based uranium company has proven up two properties in Canada one in Ontario and one in B.C. to better define the assets for investors.

The independent technical reports for both Thunder Lake in northwestern Ontario and Lara, which sits 75 km north of Victoria on Vancouver Island, was done by Caracle Creek International Consulting (CCIC).

Laramide says Lara will be the flagship property of the new company which is slated to go public some time in the first quarter of next year.

CCIC took historical data — mainly from 500 drill holes drilled between 1984 and 1989 — and re-sampled the core to come up with a national instrument 43-101 compliant resource estimate.

It puts indicated resources at 1.2 million tonnes grading 3.01% zinc, 32.97 grams silver, 1.05% copper, 0.58% lead and 1.97 grams gold. Inferred resources come in at 669,600 tonnes grading 2.26% zinc, 32.99 grams silver, 0.9% copper, 0.44% lead and 1.90 grams gold.

The Lara deposit is described as a volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit with anomalous gold and silver, and Laramide says mineralization has a strike length of roughly 1,180 metres with a true width of roughly 5 metres.

As for Thunder Lake, the project has only a non-compliant historical resource done by former owner Corona Gold (CRG-T)in 2001. The company estimated 2.97 million tonnes grading 6.47 grams gold for 618,707 oz.

Laramide bought Thunder Lake – which was formerly known as the Goliath gold property — from Corona and Teck Cominco (TCK.A, TCK.B-T, TCK-N) in October of this year. Laramide will pay roughly $18.4 million in cash and will give Corona a 10% stake and Teck Cominco a 2.27% stake in the “NewGoldCo”.

While specifics about the spin-off still aren’t known, Laramide says it plans to distribute some of the new company’s shares to its current shareholders by way of a dividend.

In Toronto on Dec. 17 the company’s shares were off close to 14% or 82 to $5.05 on roughly 630,000 shares traded. Its share price has fluctuated widely over the last year, moving as high as $16.70 and as a low as $3.95.

In a statement posted on the company website, Laramide’s president and chief executive Marc Henderson, said such volatility was tied to large hedge funds running hot and cold on uranium stocks.