Impressive Teddy Bear has long history

Ross Hofmann, chairman and majority shareholder of little- known Teddy Bear Valley Mines (COATS), likes to tell the story of how he became a member of the Gold Plugged Drill Bit Society. Hofmann, 70, is a charter member of the rare society which he formed nearly five years ago after a drill working on his claims near Matheson, Ont., was plugged up when it intersected a vein of visible gold.

The property and surrounding claims are now the site of a major exploration joint venture involving Noranda (TSE), Freewest Resources (ME), Newmont Mining (NYSE) and Lightval Mines, a private company controlled by Hofmann.

Five drills are currently at work on the joint venture, confirming what is likely to shape up as a major new gold deposit of at least three million tons. It lies at depths of around 1,800 ft. below surface, and is still open to the east.

But Noranda, the current operator, isn’t the first to find gold on the property. Nearly 65 years ago, a rich specimen of gold from the Teddy Bear property was displayed at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. The famous nugget assayed a spectacular 321 oz. gold per ton.

“The CNE sample was about the size of a lake trout,” Hofmann told The Northern Miner. “People used to call it the fish,” he said.

Just six years ago, Hofmann retained geologist David Bell to do some follow-up work on the Teddy Bear property which was originally acquired by Hofmann’s father, Elwood, in the 1920s.

Elwood Hofmann became devoted to developing the property during the Depression when the only way into the area was along bush trails.

According to Ross Hofmann, his father Elwood acquired control of the Teddy Bear property in the late 1920s, and he is reported to have personally financed a small gold mine on the claims during the 1930s. The small mine later ceased operations with the onset of harsh economic conditions in the Depression and the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.

In a recent interview with The Northern Miner, Hofmann recalls the unusual event which took place in 1984 when a diamond drill bit became plugged with gold on the property.

In mid-1984, six holes were completed in a north-south fence just east of the Harker-Holloway Twp. line. One hole cut a visible gold shoot that seized and plugged the drill bit, he explained.

“Rumors began to spread quickly and drillers everywhere were gossiping about the gold plugged drill bit,” Hofmann says.

He now keeps the famous drill bit in his desk drawer at a downtown Toronto office where curious onlookers can catch a glimpse of the unique object.

Hofmann’s father, who counted other well-known prospectors such as Dan Willans among his friends, was the original mine developer on the Teddy Bear claims. He died in 1980 at the age of 96.

Nearly six years later, Teddy Bear optioned the property to Newmont, and later to Freewest and Noranda. Recent drilling by Noranda has outlined a major new deposit, dubbed the Lightning zone which is still undergoing definition drilling.