Stretched to the limit: gold junior miner takes on government.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: MINING

Darryl Stretch has his Howard Beale moments.

Like the ranting fictional TV anchorman, emotion can get the better of the president of Solid Gold Resources when he discusses the exploration standstill at his Lake Abitibi gold play in northeastern Ontario.

The 25-year industry veteran admits to not being very polished, media-wise, in explaining his gloves-off approach in fighting to resume drilling at his Legacy Gold Project, a 200-square-kilometre property near the Quebec border that The junior miner has held since 2007.

"Everything we do in life is a double-edged sword," said Stretch, whose torrent of colourful press releases attacking the province, the courts and First Nations as being. "bullies," "tyrants," and speaking with "forked tongues" is the kind of vitriol that would make his company radioactive to investors.

"Even though I have a pretty pathetic-looking stock price (at $0.035 on the TSX Venture Exchange in mid-August), most of my shareholders are pretty comfortable with what I'm doing. We've been left with no alternative."

His temper flared last January when an Ontario Superior Court upheld an injunction by the nearby Wahgoshig First Nation and the company was ordered to stop exploration for 120 days. The court ruled that the junior miner made a "wilful effort not to consult" with the community despite provincial requests to do so since 2009.

The First Nation claims the area in question holds significant cultural and archaeological value.

Justice Carol Brown ordered Solid Gold and the Ontario government to pay for a third-party mediator to begin a consultation process with the First Nation.

In appealing the decision, Stretch argues that the Ontario government delegated its duty to consult and accommodate onto his company, something it legally can't do, citing a 2004 Supreme Court of Canada decision,. Haida Nation v. British Columbia.

With exploration shut down and no money flowing in, Solid Gold is also suing the Ontario government for $100 million in damages.

"If it comes to the point where they make us give up all that 200-square kilometres, I expect it will be considerably more than that," said Stretch.

Stretch said Solid Gold is sandwiched in the middle of a long-running turf battle between the First Nation and the government over access to Crown land.

Some in the industry silently cheer him on, while others wince. But Stretch is content to make as much noise as possible, even choosing to picket the First Nations.

"We decided...