The Cariboo Gold Project recently announced some positive results of its drilling program as it seeks to develop gold prospects in the Cariboo region near Wells, British Columbia.
Image Credit: Facebook/ Barkerville Gold Mines
November 14, 2020 - 7:00 AM
Recent drilling results on a mining venture in the historic Barkerville area is feeding optimism a developing gold mine will bring long lasting, new wealth to a region that has seen hard times recently.
Osisko Gold Royalties is developing the Cariboo Gold Project through its subsidiary, Barkerville Gold Mines, an underground gold mine located in the Cariboo Mining District near Wells, British Columbia.
A press releases from the company, issued last month, included drilling results that prompted Osisko Chair and Chief Executive Officer Sean Roosen to say it's not just one mine.
“Recent drill results continue to confirm our thesis that Cariboo is not just a mining project but a mining camp,” adding since the company first became involved with the project they have been firm believers in its “potential scale and importance within the sector.”
Roosen also announced in a previous press release the Cariboo Gold Project would become the flagship asset in the newly formed Osisko Development Corp.
Cariboo Regional District Area C Director John Massier says the project is welcome news in the small communities of Barkerville and Wells, and is having a spin-off effect in Quesnel.
“There are quite a few locals working for the project who live in the community of Wells, others in Quesnel. It’s really created a buzz in the two years Barkerville Gold Mines has been going,” Massier said in a telephone interview, Nov.10.
The project already employs around 120 people who continue to do exploratory drilling and development work on Bonanza Ledge, near Wells.
“British Columbia history originates in Barkerville, with the gold rush there in the 1860s. That was placer gold, in huge deposits. There were two lode (underground) mines that ran in the are in the 1930s through the 1960s, and people always knew there was a large lode gold source here,” Massier says.
He says Osisko’s exploratory drilling has discovered extensive mineralization across many of their claims in the area, including Cow Mountain, which is out of Massier's electoral area.
“It doesn’t really come as a surprise to people around here who have an interest in the subject,” he says.
Massier says the project comes at a good time for the region, beset in recent years by the downturn in the forest industry and large, destructive wildfires in 2017.
“It’s good to see. The company has started off on the right foot, doing a lot of things right in Wells and involving local First Nations from day one. Wells is a community of 250 people and something like this has big impacts on the community,” he says.
Massier sees the project as a great opportunity for local, good paying jobs.
“I’ve been interested in local mining all my life. We’ve always known there was something left to discover in the region, and it’s exciting to see,” he says.
The project is currently in development stage with measured and indicated resources of 2.4 million ounces of gold and inferred resources of 1.9 million ounces of gold, according to the Osisko Gold Royalties web page.
Mine life expectancy is 16 years along with 460 jobs.
Osisko Gold Royalties also announced last month it had entered into a life-of-project agreement with the local Lhtako Dene Nation with a common goal to provide project-related opportunities and benefits for current and future generations of the LDN people.
The community of Wells, British Columbia, is located about 8 kilometres west of Barkerville, east of Quesnel.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED / Google maps
To contact a reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad or call 250-488-3065 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to tips@infonews.ca and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.
News from © iNFOnews, 2020