A new gold exploration player has popped up in the Larder Lake area of northeastern Ontario.
As part of the closing of the $78-million deal involving Bonterra Resources’ acquisition of the Quebec assets of Metanor Resources, Bonterra is spinning out its Larder Lake project in Ontario, along with $7 million, to create a newly-incorporated company, Gatling Exploration.
Larder Lake is considered a multi-deposit, high-grade project covering 2,165 hectares and nine kilometres of strike length along the Cadillac-Larder Lake break. It’s located in McVittie and McGarry Townships, east of Kirkland Lake and near the town of Virginiatown on the Quebec border. Bonterra picked up the property from Kerr Mines in 2016.
The project hosts the Bear Lake deposit and the Cheminis deposit, the latter which includes a former gold mine.
Bonterra announced it has closed the transaction with Metanor on Sept. 24.
Back on June 17, when the two companies signed a binding letter of intent, the plan was to create “an exciting new advanced Canadian gold exploration and development company” in the Urban Barry camp of western Quebec, 170 kilometres northeast of Val d’Or.
The transaction consolidates Bonterra's properties on the Quebec side of the Abitibi Greenstone Belt into a 22,000-hectare package.
Bonterra now boasts a roster of three advanced high-grade gold deposits, including Gladiator, Barry and Moroy, multiple exploration projects, and the only permitted gold processing mill in the camp.
Shareholders and optionholders of the two companies voted in favour of the transaction on Sept.18 followed by court approvals in Quebec and British Columbia.
Bonterra acquired all of the common shares of Metanor at the exchange ratio of 1.60 Bonterra shares for each Metanor share. The TSX Venture Exchange is expected to provide final approval on Sept. 24.
