Loading ...TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Having had modest beginnings in the 1800s with placer gold discovered in the vicinity of Canadian project developer Seabridge Resources’ flagship KSM project, located in north-west British Columbia, the project has grown to a mammoth size, today being the largest undeveloped gold/copper reserve in the world.
According to the TSX-listed firm’s 2011 updated prefeasibility study on the KSM project, it contains National Instrument 43-101-compliant proven and probable reserves of 38.5-million ounces of gold and 9.9-billion pounds of copper.
“Having so many ounces and pounds in reserve is great to have, but is also one of our challenges. Because of its size, it really can only be successfully built and operated by one of the large gold companies. We are unfortunately not one of those large companies and our strategy is to join forces with a senior partner to develop the project as a joint venture (JV),” Seabridge chairperson and CEO Rudi Fronk told Mining Weekly Online in an interview.
He revealed that Seabridge had currently entered into several confidentiality agreements with senior companies in both the gold and the base metals sectors, and was confident that the company would announce a JV transaction in the “not too distant future”.
“We invite the major companies that we believe can build and operate a mine of our size and give them access to our data room. We are not interested in selling the company at these valuations, we would be able at this point to create more value for our shareholders through a strategic partnership with the right partner that is able to do the heavy lifting,” Fronk said.