White-Karry Mines disappeared in 1961

I have a certificate for 500 shares of White-Karry Gold Mines. Does the company still exist?

Cornelius, N.C.

White-Karry Gold Mines was incorporated in 1946, and took over the assets of an earlier company under the same management, Gipsy Gold Mines. Gipsy’s directors were John A. White, Peter Karry and George Karry, all of whom were from southwestern Ontario, and Gus Paul and James Kastanas, both from North Carolina.

Gipsy had owned a block of 32 claims in Black Twp., about 25 km southeast of Matheson, Ont., just west of Highway 11. With $7,300 in the treasury and plans to drill the gold prospects on the claims, Gipsy needed a refinancing. Three Gipsy shares were traded for one new share of White-Karry, and some new money was raised.

The company drilled the Black Twp. prospects and expanded its ground position, so that by 1956 it had 100 claims (about 4,000 acres) in Black Twp. and another 16 claims in nearby Cook Twp., on the other side of the highway. But the company had only a limited amount of money for drilling at any one time, and after 1956 it did no more work on the properties. There was never any production from the claims.

White-Karry’s corporate charter was cancelled in November 1961, and there was no distribution to shareholders. It is likely that after work was suspended in 1956, the unpatented mining claims would have lapsed within a few years. The property also included 29 patented claims, which would not have been subject to cancellation for lack of work but which would have been extinguished by the time the corporate charter was cancelled — unless they had been transferred to another owner. In any event, the company no longer owned them and the shares do not confer any right to them.

A look at the claim maps of the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines shows that the areas with known gold showings in Black Twp. are largely staked by individual prospectors and that those in Cook Twp. are mainly held by Royal Victoria Minerals, now a subsidiary of St Andrew Goldfields (SAS-T).