Geraldton-Beardmore booms

The entire Geraldton-Beardmore greenstone belt, which in its heyday boasted a dozen producers that turned out over four million ounces of gold, is once again bustling under a full-scale exploration boom that will almost certainly see some of the former mines reopening, as well as brand new ones, The Northern Miner gathers from a swing through the area.

It’s reminiscent but hardly a match for the staking rush and excitement that followed the gold discovery of prospectors Tom Johnson and Tony Oklend in 1932 and their historic deal with Joe Errington that gave birth to this camp and a staking boom that extended east-west for 70 miles and up to 25 miles wide. (Those two prospectors, incidentally, received 900,000 vendor shares of Little Long Lac Gold Mines, a stock that has never been cut back and which this week was trading at over $48 a share on the tse under the name Lac Minerals).

“I think we are going to see exploration expenditures exceeding $10 million by the private sector in the Geraldton-Beardmore area this year,” says John Mason, the Ontario government’s new resident geologist. The government itself has crews mapping eight townships and is carrying out an airborne em survey that is likely to lead to another staking rush, he points out.

Starting the ball rolling in the Geraldton sector has been the findings of the father-son Malouf team, which has carried out a lot of good work in the area.

Dr S. E. Malouf, a prominent geologist who heads Roxmark Mines, is reviving the Magnet Lake mine, a former producer on which that company has spent over $3 million and which will be coming into production as an ore shipper (see below), while the younger Michael Malouf has three new companies under his wing — Hardrock Extension, Geraldton Longlac Gold and Ferau Resources.

With $2.4 million recently raised in new financing, Hard Rock Extension is resuming drilling with two machines on a rather exciting drill discovery (0.78 oz over 18.5 ft) it has come up with on the Kenogamisis peninsula where it has carried out extensive stripping and trenching just east of the old Hard Rock mine, a former substantial producer. The first follow-up hole shows an 8.5-ft section that assayed 0.78 oz. Subsequent holes will be drilled at 50-ft intervals.

Further to the east, Ferau is just resuming drilling on its property on which there are four known deposits and two old shafts. Limited drilling last winter 1,300 ft east of the old McFarland Long Lac shaft picked up two good- looking parallel zones which seem to line up with an ore grade shoot that had been drifted by McFarlane for a length of 500 ft. The upper section ran 0.20 oz across 11.6 ft while 75 ft. lower the other zone ran 0.18 oz across 8.5 ft.

A recently completed 60 degrees hole under this looks quite lively as does another hole 50 ft to the east, says Mr Malouf, who adds that this zone “shows real character.”

The Farau company currently has some $400,000 in its treasury and plans early additional financing for an accelerated program.

Geraldton Longlac, which holds the ground between Hardrock and Farau, is just at the trenching stage which has already uncovered a lively looking folded structure from which a grab sample assayed 2.2 oz gold. It, too, has about $400,000 in the treasury.

East of the Ferau, Rayrock Yellowknife Resources has flown and prospected a 150-claim group and is believed ready for drilling. And still further east, Duration Mines is dewatering the underground Theresa mine workings, a former modest producer.

Lac Minerals, which still holds a large spread of ground in the heart of the old camp, is reassessing the whole area. Of particular interest is a drill program being carried out on the former MacLeod-Cockshutt property. Encouraged by initial findings, the company is starting a new 10,000-ft drill program. “We may add a second drill here,” a senior company official tells The Northern Miner.

The original Little Long Lac property, which adjoins the MacLeod on the west, remains under a 99-year lease to Algoma Steel Corp. which pays Lac $40,000 annually, with a royalty clause on any production. (This lease was taken out primarily for the iron ore potential of the ground which contains open pit reserves believed in excess of 100,000,000 tons of pellets. Word heard in Geraldton was that two companies have been dickering with Algoma to buy out its lease).

Tombill Mines has been zealously holding on to some key ground adjoining Lac’s Mosher ground on the west, in the firm belief that the big MacLeod- Mosher ore structure will plunge into its ground at around 3,000 ft. Roxmark-Ateba The Roxmark mine site is a hive of activity, The Northern Miner found. As mentioned above that company has spent over $3 million since acquiring the Magnet Lake mine in ’81. It has now dealt this to A. C. A. Howe’s Ateba Mines which must spend $1.5 million to earn a 60% interest.

A big new headframe has been ordered, with pumping of the underground workings already under way. While Roxmark had originally dewatered to the 11th level where it carried out considerable drilling (with some highly interesting findings under the Magnet fault). The new plan is to dewater the winze which extends to the 17th level at 2,600 ft where a 300 ft length of good ore was drifted by the original operators prior to closure. (Magnet was the best grade mine in the Geraldton area.)

In all there are five zones that will be tested in the new underground program, only two of which were previously mined (when gold was $35). Roxmark calculates about one million tons remaining in ore remnants above the 14th level grading 0.18 oz.

The game plan, with Roxmark the operator, is to install a crushing plant and sophisticated ore sorter on site and truck the upgraded material to Ateba’s mill at Beardmore. Noranda moving in

Another interesting situation is developing on the former Bankfield property, which adjoins the Roxmark on the west. This has been taken over by Golden Trio Minerals, a vse-listed company headed by J. C. Bonhomme which has just dealt it to Noranda Exploration. The latter company must spend $2 million to earn a 50% interest. Discussions are being held with Roxmark that could lead to some underground access to this Bankfield ground from the deep Roxmark workings. (Bankfield itself was another profitable producer in the camp’s heyday.)

Dome Mines, which holds a big spread of ground west of the Bankfield, has been carrying out exploratory drilling for some time. Busy at Beardmore

The Beardmore sector, some 50 miles farther west, is every bit as busy as Geraldton, with at least 16 companies actively exploring.

Triggering this renewed interest was the discovery of what has all the earmarks of developing into a major deep orebody by Metalore Resources at Windigokan Lake, eight miles northeast of the town. This has been optioned to Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting which plans to put down an 1,800-ft production shaft. However, that major shaft-sinking program has effectively stalled any early production plans by a massive law suit launched by Ontex Resources, the company that vended this property to Metalore and which holds a 10% net profit royalty interest. However, Hudson Bay is continuing with a program of surface drilling using two machines to further outline the orebody, while Metalore is drilling on the adjoining Knox ground, part of a big spread it holds in that camp.

As reported recently in this paper, plans are afoot to drill and likely reopen the Leitch mine which was this area’s leading producer for many years. This ground is held by Teck Corp. under an agreement whereby San Paulo Explorations can earn a 50% interest for an expenditure of $3 million.

Another operation giving the area its uplift is that of Ateba Mines which has acquired and is completely revamping the 200-ton Pan- Empire mill, as well as the Northern Empire mine, a former producer. It is putting in both a cyanide and flotation circuit, as well as a state-of-the-art ore sorter which has proved highly successful in Africa and which should effectively raise capacity
for run-of-mine ore from 200 tons to 1,000 tons daily. This incorporates both a mechanical and electronic system capable of recognizing and separating gold- bearing rock from waste on a high tonnage flow basis. First mill feed will be drawn from the nearby Northern Empire dumps, fo llowed by the Leitch and Sturgeon River dumps which it holds under a royalty agreement. All have been carefully sampled.

“We expect to generate a cash flow of $3.2 million in the first 24 months of the milling operation,” Stephen Wilkinson, the company’s highly experienced general manager tells The Northern Miner, estimating production costs of $320(C) per oz.

Revenues from the milling operation will likely be used to reopen the Northern Empire mine where a brand new orebody has been partially outlined by surface drilling.

Parklane Technologies Inc., another Vancouver-listed company, is currently drilling the adjoining former Spooner property.