The historic Golden Rose mine is located about 14 km north of Inventus Mining’s Pardo Gold Project in Ontario.
By Penny Langford
Inventus Mining has agreed to acquire the historic Golden Rose Mine in northeastern Ontario from Conquest Resources, adding a past-producing, high-grade underground gold asset to its regional land position around the company’s Pardo Gold Project.
Under a definitive property purchase agreement dated Aug. 27, Inventus will acquire a 100% interest in Conquest’s Belfast-Teck Mag property package, which includes the Golden Rose Mine. The transaction was announced Aug. 28 and remains subject to acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange and other customary closing conditions.
Golden Rose is located approximately 70 kilometres northeast of Sudbury and 14 kilometres north of Pardo. The acquisition would expand Inventus’ regional land position to about 681 square kilometres and give the company two nearby gold assets with different development profiles.
Pardo is being advanced as Inventus’ lead near-term development priority, including a potential direct-shipping ore, or DSO, production pathway. Golden Rose, by contrast, offers historical underground workings, high-grade drill results and a large historical database that Inventus plans to validate through modern exploration and technical studies.
Transaction terms
Inventus will issue Conquest 8 million common shares at a deemed price of C$0.295 per share. The share consideration has an implied value of approximately C$2.36 million, although the transaction is not structured as a cash purchase.
The shares will be subject to applicable statutory and exchange hold periods, as well as a voluntary pooling arrangement. One-third of the shares will be released following the applicable hold period, another one-third on the first anniversary of closing and the final third on the second anniversary.
Conquest will also receive a 2% net smelter return royalty on mining claims that are not already subject to an existing royalty. Inventus will retain the right to purchase 0.5% of that royalty for C$1 million. No finder’s fees are payable.
| Transaction element | Terms |
|---|---|
| Buyer | Inventus Mining Corp. |
| Seller | Conquest Resources Limited |
| Asset | Belfast-Teck Mag property package, including Golden Rose Mine |
| Share consideration | 8 million Inventus shares at C$0.295 each |
| Implied share value | Approximately C$2.36 million |
| Royalty | 2% NSR on eligible claims |
| Royalty buyback | 0.5% for C$1 million |
| Closing condition | TSX Venture Exchange acceptance and customary conditions |
| Location | About 14 km from Pardo and 70 km northeast of Sudbury |
Inventus said the acquisition will be completed only after the required approvals and closing conditions have been satisfied.
A past-producing high-grade gold system
Golden Rose is an iron-formation-hosted gold system where mineralization is associated with quartz-carbonate veining and sulphide replacement within Archean banded iron formation.
The mine operated from 1937 to 1941 and again from 1987 to 1988. Across those two operating periods, the property produced approximately 52,000 ounces of documented gold.
Between 1937 and 1941, about 130,850 tonnes were milled and approximately 45,400 ounces of gold were recovered, representing a historical recovered grade of 10.8 grams per tonne. During the later operating period, approximately 84,738 tonnes of mostly development material were milled, producing about 6,632 ounces of gold.
The company said the mine was not closed because the mineralized system had been exhausted. The first operating period ended during the Second World War, while the 1987-1988 redevelopment was halted for financial reasons before mine development was completed.
Golden Rose has a shaft, decline ramp and seven underground levels. The property also includes a previously permitted tailings facility, although Inventus will need to assess the condition, capacity and regulatory status of that infrastructure before assigning it a role in any future development plan.
Existing underground development could help guide confirmation drilling and future engineering studies.
Historical estimate requires modern validation
A 1985 historical estimate reported 2.483 million short tons grading 0.242 troy ounces of gold per short ton. Inventus has converted that figure to approximately 2.25 million tonnes grading 8.30 g/t gold, containing about 600,900 ounces.
The estimate is historical and does not represent a current mineral resource or mineral reserve under current Canadian reporting standards. Inventus said it is not treating the estimate as a current resource or reserve.
The historical categories used in the original work, including “proven,” “probable” and “possible,” predate current CIM Definition Standards and cannot be directly equated with today’s measured, indicated and inferred resource categories.
The reliability of the historical estimate has also not been fully established to current standards. Key items requiring review include historical drilling, underground sampling, survey control, density assumptions, assay quality assurance and quality control, grade capping, geological modelling and mine depletion.
To establish a current mineral resource, Inventus expects to compile and validate the historical database, confirm underground and drill-hole locations, resample or twin historical core where practical, complete modern drilling with current QA/QC procedures and prepare an updated geological model.
That work will determine how much of the historical mineralization can be supported under a current technical report.
High-grade drill results provide exploration targets
Inventus’ review of the historical Golden Rose drill database identified several high-grade intercepts. Reported results include:
| Drill interval | Reported grade |
|---|---|
| 22.88 metres | 19.76 g/t gold |
| 5.79 metres | 50.93 g/t gold |
| 15.24 metres | 15.30 g/t gold |
| 1.40 metres | 165.81 g/t gold |
| 24.84 metres | 8.91 g/t gold |
| 25.30 metres | 8.29 g/t gold |
| 11.58 metres | 17.22 g/t gold |
| 5.61 metres | 34.32 g/t gold |
| 2.60 metres | 70.76 g/t gold |
| 4.42 metres | 35.45 g/t gold |
The intervals are reported as uncapped core lengths and may not represent true widths. The historical results were generated by previous operators and have not been independently verified to current standards.
The mineralized iron-formation horizon extends approximately 2.2 kilometres east across the property. Inventus said the system remains underexplored along strike and has not been tested below a depth of 200 metres, creating targets for both near-mine and deeper exploration.
Modern core logging will be central to testing continuity and building a current resource model.
Potential link between Golden Rose and Pardo
The proximity of the two projects is central to Inventus’ rationale for the acquisition.
Chief Executive Officer Wesley Whymark said Golden Rose could provide a high-grade growth opportunity alongside Pardo’s potential near-term operating and cash-flow platform. He also said the company intends to investigate whether Golden Rose could represent a source region for the gold at Pardo.
Pardo is a paleoplacer gold project, while Golden Rose is an Archean gold system hosted in banded iron formation. Establishing a geological relationship between the two areas could expand Inventus’ exploration strategy from separate deposits to a broader district-scale model.
The corridor between the properties is also largely unexplored relative to the historical mine areas. Inventus plans to evaluate that corridor as part of its regional exploration work.
The company said the two properties could eventually share exploration personnel, contractors, equipment, logistics and technical expertise. Longer term, Inventus will assess whether centralized processing or other common infrastructure could support both operations, including possible use of the existing Golden Rose tailings facility.
Those opportunities remain conceptual. Any shared operating model would depend on resource definition, metallurgy, permitting, mine design, transportation, capital requirements and the results of economic studies.
Historical metallurgy offers an initial processing reference
Historical metallurgical testing completed by Lakefield Research indicated gold recoveries of approximately 85% to 86% in individual gravity concentration tests. The work also suggested that, under appropriate conditions, gravity concentration could recover about 80% to 90% of the gold into a high-grade concentrate.
Historical testwork indicated that direct cyanidation could potentially achieve recoveries of approximately 95%. The 2022 technical report identified combinations of gravity concentration, flotation and cyanidation among the more effective historical processing approaches.
Inventus cautioned that those results require confirmation through modern metallurgical testing on representative material. Differences in mineralogy, grade distribution, oxidation, sulphide content and sampling methods can materially affect recovery outcomes.
For now, the historical results provide a basis for planning future testwork rather than an operating assumption.
Next steps after closing
Inventus plans to keep Pardo as its lead near-term development priority while advancing Golden Rose through a staged exploration and evaluation program.
The company’s stated next steps include:
- Confirming the transaction: Obtain TSX Venture Exchange acceptance and satisfy customary closing conditions.
- Launching a drill program: Test historical high-grade mineralization, extensions below and beyond the existing workings, and targets along strike and at depth.
- Validating historical information: Review drilling, underground sampling, production records, assays, surveys and geological interpretations.
- Advancing a resource estimate: Integrate validated historical data with new drilling and geological modelling under current reporting standards.
- Reviewing development options: Assess whether high-grade material could support a staged DSO approach and determine whether Pardo and Golden Rose can share infrastructure and services.
- Testing the regional model: Investigate the underexplored corridor between Golden Rose and Pardo and assess the potential geological connection.
The short distance between the projects could reduce logistical duplication, subject to technical and permitting studies.
The acquisition gives Inventus access to a historically productive gold system without immediately making Golden Rose its primary development project. That sequencing allows the company to use Pardo’s potential near-term production strategy to support exploration while it works to replace historical Golden Rose estimates with current technical data.
The immediate test will be execution: closing the transaction, confirming the historical database and determining whether the reported high-grade intervals form continuous, mineable zones. Until that work is complete, Golden Rose remains a promising historical asset and exploration opportunity rather than a current mineral resource or defined mine plan.
Source: Inventus Mining acquisition announcement via Business Insider Markets. Related Skillings coverage: Gold mining news: discovery grades and development risk and Mining M&A deals and project-stage risk.