Alcoa to upgrade Baie-Comeau

Pittsburgh, Pa.-based Alcoa (AA-N) intends to spend $1 billion upgrading its smelter in Baie-Comeau, Que., to begin in late 2003.

Under a deal with the Quebec government, the aluminum giant will invest the money over eight years with the goal of boosting annual production to 547,000 tonnes from the current 437,000 tonnes.

The Soderberg production technology, currently in place, will be replaced with a modern “pre-bake” technology designed to slash the plant’s polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and greenhouse gas emissions.

The upgrading will create 5,850 direct and indirect jobs over the eight years, Alcoa says, and the company has agreed to employ at least 1,476 workers at the smelter. The deal calls for stiff penalties if the commitment is not met.

For its part, the Quebec government will provide a $170-million interest-free loan and grant the project a 10-year corporate tax break.

Also, Hydro-Qubec will provide preferential corporate rates for 175 MW of electricity, and the government will renew, for an additional 25 years beginning in 2011, the water rights for the McCormick hydro plant, which supplies a portion of the smelter’s energy.

Vancouver — Barrick Gold (ABX-T) will assist Rimfire Minerals (RFM-V) in exploring the latter’s RDN gold prospect in northwestern British Columbia.

The property comprises rocks similar in age, composition, alteration and mineralization to Barrick’s Eskay Creek deposit (40 km to the southwest), which hosts 1.2 million tonnes averaging 40.4 grams gold and 1,855 grams silver per tonne.

Previous work on the property has identified target areas that host gold-arsenic plus or minus silver, copper, lead, and zinc soil geochemistry anomalies. These targets host gold-bearing footwall feeder-style quartz-sulphide veining.

Exploration in 2003 will entail drill-testing targets defined over the past three years.

Barrick is earning a 75% interest in the property by making annual cash payments of $25,000 and performing $1.5 million in exploration by the end of 2005. Once vested, Barrick must fund annual exploration programs (at a rate of at least $500,000 per year) until a development decision has been reached.

Rimfire has six projects on the go — two with AngloGold (AU-N) in Alaska and four in British Columbia with Barrick, First Au Strategies (FAV-V), Stikine Gold and Plutonic Capital.

Vancouver — Junior Platinum Group Metals (PTM-V) has inked a deal to purchase the portions of a property that adjoin the Bafokeng Rasimone platinum mine near Rustenberg, South Africa.

The mine is held by Anglo American Platinum (AAPTY-O). The adjoining property, known as the Elandsfontein 102 JQ farm, comprises 3 sq. km and is adjacent to an area where the UG2 platinum-bearing reef has been traced and mined by open-pit methods.

PGM says the property has the potential to host UG2 and Merensky Reef material near surface and at depth. A hole recently drilled on the property intersected what appears to be the UG2 reef. Assays are pending. The company has a prospecting permit in place and plans to drill at least 2,000 metres in early January 2003.

According to the option agreement, PGM can acquire the mineral rights first by paying 150,000 rand (or $27,000 at current exchange rates) to the holders of the mineral rights, and then paying 43 rand ($7.70) per tonne of open-castable economic resource to a minimum of 4 million rand (or $715,000). In addition, PGM must pay 4.30 rand (77) per tonne of any economic underground resource at the time of a mining authorization. The purchase price is payable 90 days after the date at which mining authorization is granted. PGM is also obliged to spend 400,000 rand ($71,500) on exploration.

The Vancouver-based company also holds an interest in the Ledig Farm, which adjoins the Styldrift joint venture (an expansion project of the Bafokeng Rasimone platinum mine).

Vancouver — Noranda (NRD-T) has opted not to continue exploring the El Morro copper-gold property in Chile.

In September 2002, the major announced that the La Fortuna area of the project has an inferred resource of 465 million tonnes grading 0.5 gram gold per tonne and 0.61% copper, based on a cutoff grade of 0.4% copper. At the beginning of December 2002, Noranda had spent more than US$10 million on the project.

“We strongly believe that the size and quality of the La Fortuna resource deserve an aggressive development program,” says Richard Hall, president of joint-venture partner Metallica Resources (MR-T).