Editorial Don’t write off ’89 yet

With gold prices in the dumper, investors shy of mining stocks since the ’87 market crash and flow-through funding at low ebb, it looked like money for exploration would be hard to come by this year.

But lo and behold, 1989 is shaping up to be the year base metals catch the imagination of explorationists and investors alike. What the pundits forgot to take into account when gazing into their crystal balls to foresee the course of events in 1989 was the ability of a good drill hole to fire the imagination.

The excitement a drill hole can generate has wielded its magic before. The possibility that a small exploration company can find a major deposit and make that quantum leap into the big leagues of producing mining companies has always been the appeal of the Canadian mining scene.

What has really been rocking the stock markets of late is the Louvem discovery by Aur Resources in the Val d’Or area of Quebec. Despite the fact that just three holes have intersected the massive sulphide deposit across significant widths, many in the industry feel this could be the most significant base metal find in the Canadian Shield since Kidd Creek in 1964.

Back-of-the-envelope tonnage figures on the basis of those three holes have people talking about six million tons of mineralized material and perhaps 10 million tons or more. (We’re careful not to call this “ore” quite yet, because the grades — although excellent from core results — are just not known and mining factors have not been considered.)

Given the location of this find in the midst of a well-established mining camp, it’s likely that if the material is there, mining it will pose few problems. If the grade proves up and the tonnage estimates are correct, this discovery will rank right up there with some of the best known mines in Canada over the years — Kam Kotia, Normetal, Willroy and Amulet. If the tonnage is better than these early estimates, who knows what could be buried in the Val d’Or camp?

The Louvicourt Twp. discovery, however, doesn’t stand alone. With base metal prices faring well of late, there have been a number of developments to stir the imagination — and open the pocketbooks of those gunshy investors.

In Quebec’s Lac St. Jean area there’s a nickel showing that, judging by its surface dimensions of length and width, could be huge. The quality of this deposit, or any other for that matter, depends on that third dimension — depth. For that reason there are more than a few keen eyes watching for drilling to begin.

In British Columbia reserves on the Mount Milligan porphyry copper-gold discovery near Prince George continue to expand. Another significant porphyry deposit being investigated in British Columbia is Sulphurets Gold’s Kerr deposit.

Back in Quebec, Audrey Resources is sitting on a major polymetallic deposit in the Rouyn area. And, in a largely unexplored area of the Gaspe Peninsula, the Geological Survey of Canada has released preliminary results of a recently detected polymetallic anomaly. That’s virtually unprecedented for the GSC which usually compiles all its information then releases it all at once. Already companies are staking their claims in the area in hopes that the GSC has detected something economic.

There’s a lot of work to be done on all of these projects, and their success depends not only on the nature of the deposits but the price of metals as well. Nevertheless, there’s a little bit of the old magic back in the mining game, something that’s been missing for the past year and a half. Let’s hope some of these discoveries live up to expectations.

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