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Eight years after Kirkland-based Royal Oak Mines collapsed into receivership, gold-mining entrepreneur Peggy Kent is at it again.

Only this time gold is selling for more than $800 an ounce, not the low of $254 an ounce at the time of Royal Oak's demise.

Kent, who is still known by many in the industry as Peggy Witte, the last name of her former husband, has created a new company, based in Blaine, Wash., called Century Mining Corp.

Century was created in 2003 from the shell of a defunct public company, and its stock was trading at just 45 cents a share earlier this week on the Toronto Venture Exchange.

But Century reported a $1.6 million net profit on $14.7 million in revenue for the second quarter ending June 30. It was the company's fourth consecutive profitable quarter, after losing money the year before. Century sold 20,740 ounces of gold in the quarter.

Now Century is on an aggressive drive to expand its holdings through the hostile takeover of Sulliden Exploration Inc., a gold-mining company based in Toronto.

The two companies have been locked in a legal battle over whether Century or Sulliden is the rightful owner of the Shanuindo gold deposit, in Peru. The mine has reserves of about 2 million ounces of gold, Kent said.

Rather than pursue years of litigation, Century is forcing the issue with a bid to buy Sulliden, and next week will file a formal offer with Sulliden shareholders, she said. Century is offering 0.72 shares of Century for every share of Sulliden.

"By taking over Sulliden, all the litigation would go away, and it would unlock the value of the property," she said.

But Sulliden continues waging a vigorous legal battle against Century, and in early November its website was peppered with releases denying nearly every one of Century's legal claims.

Sulliden executives did not respond to repeated phone calls.

Kent has a reputation for a dogged tenacity when it comes to developing gold mines, and her endeavors have at times been opposed by environmentalists, native groups and labor interests. Part of this comes with the territory, and in Peru, for instance, there is a budding indigenous resistance to the proliferation of gold-mining operations.

Kent said she gave up on gold mining after the collapse of Royal Oaks Mine, during which her former company poured $600 million into developing the Kemess Mine, in British Columbia. Northgate Minerals Corp., of Vancouver, British Columbia, bought that mine out of bankruptcy for about $120 million, and now operates it profitably, she said.

Stung by the experience, Kent swore off mining, and for a while afterward moved into real estate development and even the meat-packing business, she said. She also sold her house in Medina, a wealthy enclave near Seattle, and moved to Semiahmoo, near Blaine.

But then gold started climbing in price, and Kent got back in the gold game.

"I was really bitter, but now, seven to eight years later, I sit here and say that was a fabulous part of my career to gain that experience," she said, adding that her management team, still with her, learned valuable lessons about litigation and "receivership situations."

Century currently owns two operating mines: the Sigma Lamaque mine, in Quebec, which it purchased in 2004 for $26 million, and the San Juan mine, in Peru. According to its quarterly Aug. 30 release, the company produced 20,014 ounces of gold in the quarter ended June 30, selling it for an average of $658 an ounce. Century expects to produce 70,000 to 80,000 ounces of gold in 2007.

The Sigma Lamaque was considered an older gold mine when Century bought it, but rising gold prices brought it new life. Century started operating it as an open-pit mine in 2005, but higher gold prices changed the equation, and the company in early November converted it back into an underground mine.

Gold has been climbing in price largely because investors have been seeking alternatives to the erratic U.S. stock markets. Investors have also have been fleeing the weakening dollar for other currencies and precious metals.

Back in the late '90s, when Witte was trying to develop Royal Oak Mines, stocks were hot and investors had little use for precious metals. In addition, many national banks were unloading gold on the open market, driving down prices further.

"When I started the exercise, gold was $400 an ounce," she said. "We had all kinds of financial advisers telling us gold wouldn't go to below $300, but at the end of the day, you have to grin and bear it, and move on."