Editor’s Note BASE METALS SEARCH

Today’s dearth of base metal explorationists reflects the state of a market that just hasn’t been extensive enough over the past two decades to support a large group Isolated discoveries have occurred fairly recently — Westmin’s h-w orebody on Vancouver Island, Minnova’s Winston Lake and Ansil finds and a few others However, the last great base metal rush gripped this country in the 1960s — Kidd Creek and Mattabi Lake/Lyon Lake in Ontario and the copper porphyries of British Columbia (The Maritimes’ big Brunswick find came in the early 1950s ) Faced with dwindling prospects, the base metal experts fled to gold exploration or producing base metal mines

But a free market is a wonderful thing in that, left to its own devices, it usually corrects itself A free market in the services of geologists, geophysicists and their kind is no different If base metal prices can hold the high ground they’ve captured in the past year, then an increasing number of explorationists must eventually cozy up to terms like “massive sulphides ” The field will grow

The real worry is that time is not on the side of the base metal fraternity The current economic cycle is elderly Most economists foresee a recession — mild or severe, brief or protracted are debatable points — this year or next So the base metal boom could be a 2- or 3-year wonder Or it could last longer Nobody knows It is encouraging, however, to see that many of the geological seminars at this year’s meeting of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada feature base metal deposits Now that the gold price is weakening, we should hope that this optimistic programming by high-powered industry experts impresses some higher authority Let us pray

]]>