Seabridge, Tudor Gold tussle over KSM licence of occupation, permit

Seabridge Gold (TSX: SEA; NYSE: SA) is contesting an application made by Tudor Gold (TSXV: TUD) to rescind a certain licence of occupation and a permit held by the company at its KSM project located in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle.

In a press release Monday, Seabridge says that Tudor’s claims that the B.C. government did not have the power to issue the license and permit, and that they destroy the value of their own mining claims, are “without merit.”

According to Seabridge, the rights conveyed by its licence and the relevant activities authorized by this permit were initially conveyed and authorized in September 2014. These include rights and authorizations to engage in certain activities on land to which Tudor only acquired mineral rights in 2016.

Specifically, Mines Act permit M-245 allows Seabridge to conduct various activities, including on claims held by Tudor along the route of the tunnels connecting the east and west sides of the KSM project. The licence provides the company the right to occupy the area in which it intends to construct the tunnels.

Once they are constructed, the licence will be converted into a statutory right of way for the entire length of the tunnels, including the 12.5 km that would pass through mineral claims owned by Tudor, Seabridge argued.

Tudor’s flagship Treaty Creek project consists of a land package of 179 sq. km bordering Seabridge’s KSM property to the southwest within the Golden Triangle region. It hosts one of the largest gold discoveries in the last 30 years, with 23.4 million gold-equivalent oz. in combined open pit and underground indicated resources.

“The argument that the B.C. government does not have the power to grant these authorizations is absurd,” said Seabridge’s CEO Rudi Fronk in a release. “These types of authorizations are commonly used by the B.C. government to manage activities that take place on the government-owned land base.”

Fronk added that “the licence and authorization of the activities authorized by Permit M-245 to which Tudor objects have been in place for almost a decade” and were granted after a “thorough regulatory process” that included participation by First Nations as well as Tudor’s joint venture partners, American Creek Resources and Teuton Resources, who were the owners of the claims at the time.

Seabridge considers Tudor’s submission “particularly unjustifiable” given that the authorized activities and rights held by the company were in place and publicly known at the time Tudor acquired its interest in the Treaty Creek Property in June 2016.

Accordingly, Seabridge will act to get Tudor’s application dismissed.

The KSM project is considered one of the world’s largest undeveloped gold-copper projects. Proven and probable reserves are currently estimated at 2.3 billion tonnes grading 0.64 gram gold per tonne (47.3 million oz. contained gold) and 0.14% copper (7.3 billion lb. contained copper).

A preliminary economic assessment prepared last year outlined a 39-year operation that will need a preproduction investment of US$1.5 billion followed by sustaining costs of US$12.8 million.