Becker, Banting still busy after decades in business

At an age when most of their contemporaries are living off their pensions, Todson Becker, 80, and partner Howard Banting, 72, are still doing deals and making a living from the exploration business. From a single office in downtown Toronto, Becker and Banting run a stable of junior mining companies that include such “unnotables” as Milestone Explorations (COATS), New Bidlamaque Gold Mines (COATS) and Young- Davidson Mines (COATS).

While Banting spends most of his time at home in Etobicoke and Becker is only a part-time occupant in his office at Dunloe Investments, the 20 companies under their control are far from dormant.

Using the age-old business strategy of picking up idle properties from prospectors and then vending them out to cash-rich explorers like Noranda (TSE) and Placer Dome (TSE), Becker and Banting have managed to keep all of their companies free of debt.

With about $150,000 in working capital, Milestone holds a 5% net smelter return as well as varying royalties on the Springpole gold property in northwestern Ontario where partners Noranda (TSE) and Akiko-Lori Gold Resources (VSE) have deployed three drill rigs. At least five gold zones have been located on the property by previous operator Goldfields Canadian Mining, a unit of Consolidated Goldfields, and the best intersection reported so far is 47 ft. of 0.47 oz. gold per ton.

Ansil Resources (COATS), another member of the Becker/Banting group, holds a 7.5% royalty interest on the Ansil copper mine property near Rouyn-Noranda where Minnova (TSE) is expecting to increase its output this year to 84 million lb. copper from 25 million lb. in 1989. This year the mine will also churn out 8,245 oz. gold and 103,601 oz. silver.

Another key asset is the 25% net profits interest in 29 Val d’Or copper-gold claims held by Union Mining (COATS) and New Bidlamaque Gold Mines (COATS). The property was optioned recently by Placer Dome (TSE), which has agreed to spend $1.6 million to earn a 50% interest. Dufresnoy, Societe D’Exploration Miniere (ME) of Quebec City will operate the program.

When contacted by The Northern Miner, Banting declined to comment on the record on the activities of Milestone or any other companies in the Becker/Banting group. “Look in your files,” replied Becker when asked about his plans for 1990. While Banting is a geologist, Becker appears to be the businessman in the decades-old partnership and acts as president of the companies.

As many of the properties date back to the 1930s and 1940s, the two veterans are intimately familiar with the cyclical nature of the mining game; they have seen many an optimistic exploration outfit come and go.

During the 1950s, when gold was in decline, a block of claims on the Springpole project, for example, was sold to U.S. businessmen who later built cottages on them before they were reacquired by a predecessor of Vancouver-based International Maple Leaf Petroleums (VSE).

Almost 40 years later, Becker and Banting are waiting behind in the wings for GSR Mining Corp. to purchase (the deal is being completed in March) the assets of bankrupt Golden Shield Resources and declare its plan for the McIlroy and Catherine twps. properties near Kirkland Lake, Ont.

Through Independent Mining (COATS) and affiliate Mirado Nickel Mines, Becker and Banting hold a 30% royalty interest in 13 claims which in 1987 were labeled uneconomic by Golden Shield.

Except the Ansil copper mine, none of the properties in the Becker/Banting portfolio is in production at the moment. But that hasn’t prevented them from tending the treasuries of the companies in their group while letting others take the risk.

When The Northern Miner spoke to Banting at his office, he and his partner appeared to be conducting business as usual while waiting for the spring thaw and the usual deluge of phone calls from colleagues and prospectors.

The partnership could be in for a financial windfall if Sherritt Gordon (TSE) and Newphos table a “proceed” to production at the Cargill Twp. phosphate property near Cochrane, Ont. More than $100,000 has already been paid out to Concopper Phosphate (COATS), a Becker/Banting company, which holds a royalty interest at Cargill.

As reserves now stand at 62.5 million tons grading 19.6% phosphate, Sherritt will be looking at transportation costs and fertilizer prices before the feasibility study is complete.

Sherritt spokesman Wes Robertson declined to speculate on the likelihood of the Cargill project being brought into production.