Indigenous-owned Minto mine doubles copper-gold resource

Venerable Ventures’ (TSXV: VLV.H) new resource for the old Minto mine in the Yukon has more than doubled contained copper and gold over the 2005 estimate as the owners create a new company with the Selkirk First Nation (SFN).

The update outlines 12.6 million indicated tonnes grading 1.2% copper, 0.46 gram gold per tonne and 4.3 grams silver for 334 million lb. copper, 187,000 oz. gold and 1.7 million oz. silver, Venerable reported late Monday. Inferred resources total 23.7 million tonnes at 1.05% copper, 0.38 gram gold and 3.9 grams silver for 547 million lb. copper, 295,000 oz. gold and 2.97 million oz. silver. Minto sits on SFN traditional territory and is about 240 km northwest of Whitehorse

“Upcoming drilling will target expansion and conversion of the open-pit and underground mineral resources at Minto, particularly around the high-grade Minto North area,” Venerable Ventures’ strategic adviser Ryan Weymark said in a release.

Indigenous ownership

The resource update comes almost one year after Yukon’s Supreme Court approved SFN’s purchase of Minto, a rare case of Indigenous ownership of a mine in Canada.

The Minto mine had been put up for sale in September 2023 after owner Minto Metals shut it down in May due to financial difficulty and PricewaterhouseCoopers put the mine into receivership. The Minto mine produced about 500 million lb. copper between 2007 and 2023.

The Vancouver-based Venerable Ventures announced on July 1 a binding letter of intent with the SFN that is to see the creation of Selkirk Copper Mines. The First Nation will become the largest shareholder in the C$15 million all-share deal and will appoint two directors to the board.

Before it closes, Venerable will conduct a non-brokered private placement of up to C$2.52 million. More financing is planned to support further exploration and restarting activities.

Lower grades

While the discovery of a new mineralized domain at Minto North raised the tonnage in the update, its grades are generally slightly lower and it didn’t include a measured category.

The update is based on 376,089 metres of drilling across 1,781 holes, including 210 holes drilled in 2021 and 2022.

Venerable shares were flat at C$0.18 apiece on Tuesday at mid-day in Toronto, for a market capitalization of C$3.2 million. Its stock traded in a 12-month range of C$0.09 to C$0.23.