Kinross Options Bravada Gold’s Nevada-based Baxter Property

In a move that seems to have slipped under investors’ radar, major miner Kinross Gold (TSX:K,NYSE:KGC) on Tuesday signed an option agreement for Bravada Gold’s (TSXV:BVA) Baxter gold-silver property. 

According to a press release put out by Bravada, Kinross has the option to earn a 60-percent interest in the project by spending $2 million over five years; the company can earn a further 15-percent stake by spending an additional $2 million on exploration and development expenses over another two years.

Baxter is located 6.5 kilometers west of the Bruner district in Nevada’s Walker Lane gold trend, and it’s made up of 51 unpatented lode claims covering about 410 hectares and 189 new claims across 1,530 hectares staked by Kinross. A variety of work has been completed there thus far — for instance, initial sampling has been completed on the original claims, with 16 of 51 samples returning values between 1 and 21.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold; that includes seven samples with greater than 10 g/t gold and up to 132 g/t silver.

A detailed magnetics survey has also been completed, and a shallow drill program completed in 2004 intersected narrow intervals of high-grade gold, including 1.5 meters of 9.12 g/t gold within 6.1 meters of 3.5 g/t gold starting at 51.8 meters depth. A 13-hole reverse-circulation drill program completed in 2007 also returned narrow intervals of high-grade gold.

It’s been awhile since that work was completed, and according to Bravada President Joe Kizis it’s the success of other companies in the Bruner district that’s sparked Kinross’ interest in Baxter now. Speaking to Gold Investing News, he pointed to Canamex Resources (TSXV:CSQ,OTCQX:CNMXF) as one company currently enjoying success in the area. Its flagship project is called Bruner, and Canamex recently reported final assay results from core drilling there.

Moving forward, Kinross will be taking the lead on work at Baxter, while Bravada will continue to focus on what it does best: exploring for discoveries and finding developers for them. Currently several of its 14 projects have partners signed on.

At close of day Wednesday, shares of Bravada were sitting flat at $0.055.

Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.