Huckleberry Mine Wannabe Gets a Prominent CEO

POSTED ON April 08, 2015 BY Jamie Keech
CATEGORY Gold Reach Resources,

Ootsa property with Huckleberry Mine in the distance. Photo: Gold Reach Resources

Right next to the Huckleberry copper-gold-molybdenum mine in Northwest BC, a junior company called Gold Reach Resources Ltd. (GRV.V) has been exploring the Ootsa property.

To date, the company has found three copper-gold-molybdenum deposits at Ootsa, having drilled over 140,000 metres (350 holes) at the 100% owned property. The mineralization is porphyry style and low grade, however the grades are not dissimilar to other operating mines in BC.

This morning, Gold Reach appointed Dwayne Melrose to the CEO position. Mr. Melrose was formerly the President and CEO of True Gold Mining (TGM.V), which is building the Karma gold mine in Burkina Faso. He was relieved from his duties following social unrest and construction delays at Karma by then True Gold Executive Chairman Mark O’Dea earlier this year. Mr. Melrose was quite successful however in developing and financing Karma from exploration to the construction stage. He has over thirty years of experience in the mining industry, and is supposed to help Gold Reach transition from an explorer to a developer and raise the necessary financing to do that.

Dwayne Melrose (True Gold Mining photo)

“Joining Gold Reach at this pivotal stage of the company’s progress is very exciting given my recent experience taking previous companies from the exploration to the development stage,” Mr. Melrose said. “The Ootsa project is a flexible project with different aspects that can be pursued. I’m looking forward to enhancing the company’s Team, the community stakeholders and shareholders.”

I had the opportunity to visit Gold Reach’s Ootsa project in August 2014 with Mr. Melrose, who was a director of Gold Reach at the time.

What I saw was a well run camp, with excellent access and infrastructure in a historic and proven mining district. Ootsa’s close proximity to the Huckleberry Mine offers a distinct advantage, with regards to access to essential infrastructure and a potential future partner or buyer.

The main issues with the project pertain to the fact that, despite a 25 million ton higher-grade zone, Oosta remains a relatively small, primarily low grade project. If an arrangement cannot be made with Huckleberry to process their ore it’s not clear whether the project is economic. Additionally Ootsa and Huckleberry are separated by Tahtsa Reach, a man made reservoir, and any ore passing between the two will require a bridge or barge system to be constructed (read: time, money, permitting issues, etc.) before any ore can be sent to Huckleberry’s processing facility.

On my brief trip to Ootsa, I was particularly impressed with the passionate and experienced Gold Reach geo, Dr. Shane Ebert, who showed us around. Dr. Ebert is currently VP of Exploration at Gold Reach, after a brief stint as interim president.

Here’s a short clip of Dr. Ebert showing off some Ootsa drill core:

Gold Reach Resources Ltd. trades on the TSXV under the symbol GRV. With approximately 36.6 million shares outstanding, the company has a market capitalization of about $11.9 million Canadian. At press time, GRV shares were bid at 27.5 cents and offered at 35 cents, with the last trade at 32.5 cents.

The company is also raising $250,000 currently at 25 cents with a full warrant at 40 cents good for five years.

Here's this morning's press release: Dwayne Melrose Appointed President And Chief Executive Officer

And a November 2014 corporate presentation (link here).

Jamie Keech is a mining engineer and the Managing Director of Canary Extractive Industries, a boutique natural resource consulting group with offices in Toronto and Vancouver. Visit www.canaryx.ca

Jamie Keech

Jamie Keech completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto in Mineral Engineering. He spent the early part of his career working in exploration in Mexico, Nevada, the Yukon and Albania. He went back to school, completing a Masters in Mining Engineering focused on Environmental Development and Corporate Social Responsibility at the Camborne School of Mines in the UK. Mr. Keech then moved to Hong Kong and Mongolia working for the world’s largest mining contractor, Leighton Holdings, on three open-pit coal mines. He then returned to Toronto and spent two years working with Hatch Consulting, a leading global engineering firm, where he was focused on ArcelorMittal’s $6-billion Mary River iron ore project in Nunavut. Today Mr. Keech conducts due diligence on behalf of mining investors, and consults to various junior companies on technical due diligence, project management and regulatory affairs. He has taught an introduction to mining at Nanjing University, in Nanjing, China, and seminars for P.W.C. on the technical aspects of mining. More →

keech.jamie@gmail.com

Jamie Keech

keech.jamie@gmail.com

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