TerraX changes name to Gold Terra in ‘corporate rebranding’

TerraX, the junior exploration company working to open a new gold mine on the outskirts of Yellowknife, has renamed itself Gold Terra Resource Corp.

The company made the announcement on Friday, saying the decision to rename came as part of a broader “corporate rebranding [and] renewed focus” on developing its gold project, which encompasses nearly 800 square kilometres of land near the city.

In November, the company said it had reached a “major milestone” in publishing an assessment – conducted to national standards – that suggested at least 735,000 ounces of gold are available to be mined.

Gold Terra hopes that estimate will soon reach one million ounces through further exploration. The company has in the past said it’ll take an estimate of at least three million ounces to attract the attention of a major mining company and potentially get a mine started.

“We still have a ways to go to get up to those numbers. We believe that we will get there. It’s just going to take a considerable amount of money and hard work to get there,” said Gold Terra’s Joe Campbell in November.

“We know where [more gold] is, we just have to do more drilling to bring it forward. We expect, over the next few years, we’ll vastly increase that number.”

By comparison, Yellowknife’s former Con and Giant mines each produced in the region of six to seven million ounces of gold in their lifetimes.

Campbell now serves as Gold Terra’s chief operating officer, having previously been executive chairman of TerraX. Gerald Panneton took over that role from Campbell in October.

“The name change reflects a reset for the company towards expanding the current gold resources and defining the potential for new discoveries,” Panneton said in Friday’s news release.

Gold Terra expects to begin trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under its new name and new trading symbol, YGT, this coming week.

Junior exploration companies like Gold Terra are so-called as they are smaller operations trying to develop new mines. Most juniors rely on venture capital and the issue of new shares to fund their work. Senior companies are bigger, ordinarily have experience operating at least one working mine, and generate cashflow from their operations.