Cancor goes to Algeria

The fervor in the voice of Cancor Mines (KCR-T) president, Kamil Khobzie, is hard to miss when he talks about exploring in Algeria.

In a move to open up the mining industry, the Algerian government recently auctioned off eight properties, seven of which went to Chinese companies for US$30,000-uS$500,000 and one to Montreal-based Cancor for US$70,000.

I think Algerias going to be the next booming place in terms of mining, says Kamil, a native Algerian whos called Canada home for 30 years.

Cancors newest property is the 44.5-sq.-km Tan Chaffao copper-gold base metal property in the Hoggar district, 250 km north of the town, Tamanrasset. Tan Chaffao is 45 km northwest of the Tan Chaffao East deposit, which is being explored by a British junior company.

Some work was done on the property in the 1970s, uncovering several sulphide lenses with copper and gold discovered at surface, though little exploration has been done in the area since then. The lenses and associated stringers were found to be open laterally and a t depth, extending 300 to 500 metres and are up to 55 metres thick.

Cancor will spend about US$1 million over the two years for the first two phases of exploration, with US$100,000 reserved for an initial National Instrument 43-101 report, and US$700,000 for geophysics, sampling and drilling, beginning this fall.

We had to look to other horizons to get interesting projects at lower prices, Kamil says. Today, any project in Canada is awful.

Khobzie also has his sights set on a second Algerian property located along a 400-km gold structure just south of the Ammessma gold deposit, currently under development by an Australian company.

Its like a Cadillac fault in the 1920s when nobody knew about it. Look at whats happening today, Khobzie says of the 300-km fault zone where 100 million oz. of gold have been produced from mines along or near it.

Khobzie has just returned from the northern African country to present the technical offer for a second property, which was accepted. Now it will all come down to money. In July Cancor will submit its financial offer the property goes to the highest bidder.

When the question of risk comes up, Khobzie lumps Algeria with many other so-called high-risk countries. More than 100,000 people were killed during the 1990s when fighting persisted between the military and Islamist militants. Although a democratic government has been elected and violence has declined, the country has its share of economic, social and political problems to deal with.

The risk is the same as every other country when you explore outside of Canada, he says. Of course, sometimes theres a bomb blasting in Algiers but that happens wherever you are. In London you get bombs, in Paris, in Istanbul.

Khobzie says the cost of exploring in Canada today is too high, which is what looking elsewhere so prospective.

At a certain point we have to take risks. Canadian junior companies are all over the world Im just wondering why there is no one in Iraq yet, Khobzie says with a chuckle. But Im sure one day someone will be.