Vancouver-based explorer ATAC Resources CEO Graham Downs said on Thursday that the company continued to explore its options, after the Yukon government recently rejected its application to construct a tote road to its Tiger gold deposit.
While expressing his appreciation for support from companies, investors and industry associations, Downs noted that very significant interests were at stake and that it would take time to deal with the situation.
“We trust that all interested parties understand our lack of more detailed public comment at this time does not in any way reflect acceptance of the reasons that have been given by the Yukon government for rejecting our application,” he commented in a statement.
The Yukon government at the end of November rejected the road, citing opposition to the road from the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun (FNNND).
The tote road was conditionally approved by the Yukon government and the FNNND in March 2018, under the Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment Act.
Downs has expressed ATAC’s extreme disappointment.
“This was an application for a private, single-lane, gravel and controlled-access road in an area with existing winter trail access. If this road can’t be permitted following a positive environmental and socio-economic assessment decision and years of governmental encouragement to invest in the project, then you have to wonder if Yukon is in fact open for business.”
Work on the 1 700 km2 Rackla gold property in Yukon has resulted in the Osiris project inferred mineral resource of 1.68-million ounces of gold at an average grade of 4.23 g/t, a positive preliminary economic assessment for the Tiger gold deposit with a pretax net present value of $118.2-million and an internal rate or return of 54.5%, as well as numerous early-stage gold and base metal discoveries.