Halfmile property completes claim puzzle

When Noranda (TSE) and Trelleborg teamed up last year to buy base metal miner Falconbridge Ltd., the two multinationals got more than nickel mines and the Kidd Creek mine in northern Ontario. They also picked up what could be some significant claim blocks at Halfmile Lake in the Bathurst camp of northern New Brunswick. The claims at Halfmile Lake constitute a small, but important piece in a complicated ownership puzzle of a potential new underground mine in one of Canada’s biggest base metals camps.

The Falconbridge claims tie on to two claim groups, one held 100% by Noranda and another optioned by Noranda from Conwest Exploration (TSE).

Together the claims cover a 6-million-tonne deposit of zinc, lead, copper and silver mineralization. The deposit has good mining widths of tens of metres in two zones, the Upper AB zone and the Lower AB zone.

Based on only 18 holes drilled so far, total probable and possible reserves to a depth of about 900 metres are 5.3 million tonnes in the Lower AB grading 10.23% zinc, 3.31% lead, 0.08% copper and 31.4 grams silver per tonne and 774,000 tonnes of similar grade material in the Upper AB. The deposit remains open at depth.

The Halfmile Lake property, a short 20-km trucking distance from the operating Heath Steele/Stratmat mine and mill, is the most advanced deep exploration property in the camp and could become the next underground mine in the area.

“We are discussing the terms of an agreement with Conwest on how best to go ahead with the project,” Noranda’s exploration manager of eastern Canada, Bill Graham, tells The Northern Miner.

Since the deposit occurs at depth between 300 and 900 metres, a shaft would be required for a detailed underground exploration program. Such a project would take about two years to complete.

The Heath Steele/Stratmat mine has an assured mine life of 5-7 years and since the Halfmile Lake deposit probably would not justify a mill of its own, it fits well into the longterm strategy for Heath Steele/Stratmat, Graham says.

There are three other potential base metals mines elsewhere in the Bathurst area.

Breakwater Resources (TSE), which was hired by Bathurst Base Metals to manage development of the Caribou mine last year, is sinking a shaft on that property. Bathurst Base Metals, a private company helped re-finance the project along with Westpac Banking Corp., National Australia Bank and the provincial government. East West Minerals, an Australian company, bought the property in 1986 from Anaconda for $1 million.

The new 1,000-metre shaft will expedite delivery of ore to the 2,000-tonne-per-day mill constructed there by East West in 1988. That mill has been shut down since July, 1989, because of problems underground meeting ore production schedules. The mill is expected to be running again sometime this year.

Stratabound Minerals (ASE), meanwhile, is only a milling agreement away from placing its CNE deposit into production, President Stan Stricker says.

Probable and possible reserves there total 471,000 tonnes at a grade of 5.28% zinc, 1.94% lead and 57.54 grams oz. silver per tonne. Being so close to surface, they can be mined by inexpensive open pit methods. This property was waived through New Brunswick’s new environmental assessment process and is ready to go into production.

The Restigouche deposit, held by Marshall Minerals (ME), on the other hand, has been under the government’s environmental microscope for several months now. Located under the headwaters of a producing salmon stream, this deposit (minable by open pit method) is the first to go through the province’s environmental screening process.

Minister of State for Mines Edmond Blanchard says he has to attract international investment to New Brunswick. For him, the Restigouche project will be a test for his government’s mining- environment assessment committee.