Cross-Cuts (August 03, 1990)

INDIVIDUALISM TRIUMPHS IN B.C.

Three cheers for the little guy. In British Columbia, individual prospectors can take credit for the recent discovery of several orebodies. Included in the finds are a tungsten deposit near Revelstoke, the Tillicum gold deposit in the Burton area, gold veins on Texada Island, the Red Tusk massive sulphide deposit in the Tantalus Range and the Fireweed property west of Babine Lake.

The British Columbia Geological Survey can share in the spotlight because it regularly trains prospectors under a government program. The initiative also grubstakes projects that meet specific standards. “About 85% of new finds are still discovered by prospecting and geological interpretation,” the survey’s senior geologist, Thomas Schroeter, reported in a government communique. Each field season, about 500 fearless souls take to the woods and mountains of B.C., each, no doubt, warmed by the dreams of that big find.

NUCLEAR BATTERY

Nucell Inc. is developing the engineering prototype of the Nucell nuclear battery. In theory, the Nucell battery technology works by converting the energy of radioactive decay into direct electrical current without first converting it into thermal energy. A device demonstrating the underlying physics of the battery is operating at Nucell’s laboratory in Portland, Ore.

The company describes the engineering prototype as “an economic, practical device that will form the focus of product development.”

THE QUEUE-JUMPER MEANS BUSINESS

A good mining yarn is a good mining yarn, whether spun from a dubious synthetic or 100% virgin wool. The following was told by mining recorder Mike Weirmeir of Kirkland Lake, Ont., on a radio program following the early April staking rush south of the town. Once upon a time, back in the days of the Cobalt silver rush, a pride of prospectors converged all at once on a mining recorder’s office to record claims. “And of course,” Weirmeir said, “the guy who was first in line would be the guy entitled to record first.

“Some old-timer had it in his head that he needed to get to the front of the line regardless of the line-up. So he went home and fashioned himself this fake piece of dynamite. It was just, I don’t know, some sort of a cylinder with a fuse on it and he drove by and parked his car and lit the fuse and threw it at the office. Everybody scattered and he assumed his spot.

“Now I don’t know if he was successful — and I don’t even know if this story is true.”

See, fact or fiction, a good yarn is a good yarn.