Varna and Long Range reach an out-of-court settlement

Two Calgary-based junior mining companies have agreed to lay down their arms and concentrate on working their respective properties in Newfoundland. Varna Gold (ASE) and Long Range Resources (ASE) had been fighting an expensive legal battle for almost a year. They reached an out-of-court settlement last month.

Neither company would comment on the nature of the dispute or how it got started.

However, Long Range President Charles Dearin said the lawsuit played some role in delaying the approval of Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) for Long Range to go public.

The company still managed to raise more than $500,000 in a public share offering last year, and now has money in the bank. It plans to start developing properties in both Newfoundland and Western Canada.

The dispute’s settlement also marked another step in getting Varna back on track after a controversial year in which former Varna president Gordon Barron was banned by the ASC for improper trading practices. “The phone is starting to ring again,” Varna President Gordon Grudgfield said.

However, with interest rates high and a recession still in full bloom across the country, Varna is planning a conservative approach to working its Newfoundland properties this year. It is hoping the strength of gold showings at Tilt Cove and Baie Verte Highway will coax other firms into optioning them.

More concrete are plans by Corona (TSE) to spend about $500,000 on Varna’s Ming’s Bight property, and Newfoundland Goldbar’s projected $300,000 budget for Glover Island, also a gold property on the west coast of Newfoundland.

Long Range is budgeting a $200,000 exploration program for a property near Hope Brook Gold’s (TSE) gold mine on the southwest coast of Newfoundland. It is also looking at a drilling program near Pasadena where gold was found in a stream sampling three years ago. Prospecting will likely continue on claims near Gander, Baie Verte and the Burin Peninsula, Dearin said.