Renowned Klondike prospector Shawn Ryan and his wife and business partner Cathy Wood require little introduction. The Yukon-based couple made it big finding two large gold deposits near Dawson City, and launching the largest staking rush the Yukon has seen in 100 years. They optioned their first discovery, the White Gold project, 95 km south of Dawson City, to Underworld Resources in 2007. Three years later, Underworld was acquired by
Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) in a cash and stock deal worth $139 million. Ryan and Wood optioned their second discovery, the Coffee gold project, 130 km south of Dawson City, to Kaminak Gold Corp. in mid-2009.
Goldcorp (TSX: G; NYSE:GG) acquired Kaminak earlier this year for about $520 million.
With a track record like that, and Ryan’s belief that he can find a third, if not a fourth gold deposit elsewhere on his claims, it’s no surprise that in September, when he agreed to option all of his remaining properties in the White Gold district (that were not in current joint ventures with third parties) to
G4G Capital Corp. (TSXV: GGC), the junior exploration company’s shares surged 178% to 50¢. When the deal was finalized on Oct. 28, G4G Capital’s shares rose 30% to 92¢. Today its shares are trading in the $1.11 range.
The option agreement covers Ryan and Wood’s 12,301 quartz claims spanning 249,000 hectares in the White Gold district. The properties range from grassroots targets where ridge and spur soil geochemical sampling has identified targets for follow-up exploration, to more advanced targets where grid soil geochemical sampling, mapping, geophysical surveys and very limited drill campaigns have been conducted, all to the tune of around $25 million.
Read the entire story at The Northern Miner.
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