Ontario exploration intensifies

Ontario exploration and deposit appraisal expenditures for 2001 are expected to continue the ascent started in 2000.

Spending is expected to climb to $99 million in 2001, an increase of 10%. The upward trend started after 1999, when exploration spending bottomed out at $87 million. The following year, spending increased slightly to $89 million, and the trend to higher levels should continue.

Spending by Ontario’s senior mining sector is expected to increase by 8.4% from 2000, whereas the junior sector should see a 16.9% increase.

Most of the money spent was by senior mining companies; they accounted for 74% of exploration expenditures in 2001, up from 68% in 2000.

Mining generates more than $5 billion in annual mineral production in the province.

The dramatic increase in exploration for platinum group minerals in Ontario over the past few years is the result of three factors: a rise in prices; the success of North American Palladium’s Lac des Isles mine; and the potential of Ontario’s geology.

As part of an ongoing exploration program in the Sudbury area, Inco is working on new ore deposits containing high-grade copper, nickel and platinum group metal (PGM) mineralization. The larger deposits are at the Copper Cliff North mine and McCreedy East mine, as well as the Kelly Lake and Totten projects.

Inco is not alone, however. Several companies, including three of the world’s largest PGM producers, are exploring for new deposits in northeastern Ontario in partnership with several Canadian juniors.

For example, Pacific Northwest Capital and Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) have initiated a resource estimate of the Dana Lake zone that includes results from more than 130 drill holes taken from the River Valley intrusion, near Sudbury.

— The preceding is from Exploration and Development Highlights 2002, published by the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada. The author is a statistics analyst with the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines.