Former Barkerville CEO Frank Callaghan fined by BCSC

The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) has reached a settlement agreement with James Francis (J. Frank) Callaghan, with his admitting he made statements that breached National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Callaghan is a B.C. resident and former officer and director of Barkerville Gold Mines (TSXV: BGM).

The BCSC says the agreement states that in June and August 2012, Barkerville disclosed mineral resource estimates and a target for more exploration on a mineral property in a news release and in an independent technical report filed with the BCSC. The BCSC says its staff “determined that the initial report did not comply with NI 43-101.”

On Aug. 14, 2012, the BCSC issued a cease-trade order on Barkerville stock and required that the company file a revised compliant technical report prepared by another independent qualified person under NI 43-101.

Barkerville filed a revised technical report in June 2013, with reduced mineral resource estimates and targets for more exploration. The cease-trade order was revoked on July 15, 2013.

The BCSC says that 2.5 months after Barkerville adopted the revised estimates and retracted the initial estimates, “Callaghan publicly repeated, and attempted to justify, the initial estimates in an online article, and at an investor presentation.”

Callaghan acknowledges that his statements in the article and at the presentation contravened provisions of NI 43-101.

The BCSC says Callaghan also agreed that certain facts aggravated his breaches of NI 43-101, including that BCSC staff cautioned him that attempting to justify, validate or compare the initial estimates to the revised estimates was misleading, and likely contrary to NI 43-101; his disclosure contradicted Barkerville’s previous disclosure adopting the revised estimates as the only current estimate; and he understood disclosing combined inferred and indicated resource estimates was prohibited.

Callaghan must pay a $30,000 fine to the BCSC, and resign any position he holds as officer or director of a reporting issuer. He is banned for a year from acting as an officer, director or public relations person for any reporting issuer. He must also complete within a year a course on the requirements of NI 43-101.