You can’t hold Mike Judson down. In late 2008, his company Blue Note Mining Inc. was forced to shut down its Caribou mining complex in New Brunswick because of low metal prices and go through a major restructuring. But today, the entrepreneur is back with a focus on gold, and has picked up a promising project in Val D’Or, Quebec.
Blue Note is now on the hunt for $15-million of financing to restart the Croinor project, which could be in production as soon as July if everything goes as planned. It is expected to produce 40,000 ounces of gold a year at cash costs of around US$550 an ounce. It acquired the project by buying X-Ore Resources Inc.
“The guy running X-Ore had taken it as far as he could. He needed help, and we saw a cultural fit,” Mr. Judson said.
Blue Note has a number of other irons in the fire as well, including a recent oil discovery in Utah. And Mr. Judson said it is studying a number of other M&A opportunities as well.
“There’s two in particular we like. One is cash with no project, the other is a project with no cash,” he said.
Mr. Judson also brings a rare musical component to PDAC — he is performing in the Royal York hotel with his band “Mike and the Miners.”
Peter Koven