Barkerville gets the permit to tap into Bonanza Ledge

Barkerville Gold Mines (BGM-V) is on its way to bulking up production at its QR Mine in B.C. thanks to a newly permitted deposit just up the road.

The company has received the necessary permit to develop an open pit gold mine at its Bonanza Ledge property, which sits 2 km northwest of the Barkerville historic town site.

The permit was issued after a 15 month review process was conducted by both federal and provincial officials, and will give the company an important source of gold rich ore for its nearby QR Mine, where its mill sits.

The QR Mine lies roughly 110-km south-west of the Bonanza Ledge deposit, which Barkerville says can supply 73,000 tonnes of ore per year for a current mine life of four years, with an average grade of 9.05 grams gold per tonne.

The company already has the necessary roads in place to truck the ore to the mill.

Barkerville took the QR Mine into production in September of last year. The mill has 900 tonne per day capacity and cost the company $10.2 million to refurbish – as it was originally built by Kinross Gold (K-T, KGC-N) back in 1994.

All told the company has proven and probable reserves of 491,000 tonnes grading 7.39 grams gold for 116,640 oz; measured and indicated resource of 7.02 million tonnes grading 2.63 grams gold for 635,274 oz. of gold and inferred resources of 2.1 million tonnes grading 2.72 grams gold 185,136 oz. of gold

Those resources come out of four different deposits within the Barkerville Mine camp: Bonanza Ledge, BC Vein, Cariboo Gold Quartz Mine and QR Mine.

It was back in 2000 that Barkerville first discovered a new style of mineralization at Bonanza Ledge, which was a historic mining area. Over the next eight years the company drilled 268 diamond drill holes totaling 33,158 metres on the zone.

It says that while mineralization is similar to previously recognized mineralization in the Cariboo Gold Belt it occurs within a different stratigraphic setting as it is comprised of gold-bearing massive, banded and stringer pyrite in the footwall of the B.C. fault system.

Barkerville completed a positive a pre-feasibility study on the deposit back in September of 2009.

In Toronto on Dec. 7 the company’s shares were off 2¢ to 90¢ on 292,000 shares traded.