Industrial minerals attract mining companies

While gold has captured the public’s imagination of late, the search for l industrial minerals has proved attractive to a number of mining companies. Properties in Canada and the United States are actively being explored and p developed for their talc, beryllium, graphite, gallium and germanium, e wollastonite and mica, minerals which are playing a key role in advanced o industrial materials.

In Quebec’s Eastern Twps. region, Carey Canada, which closed its asbestos mine in the area, has uncovered a large, high grade talc deposit between the towns of Leeds Station and East Broughton. Talc is used mainly as a filler in paper products, rubber, plastics, paints and sealants.

Drilling results to date from the property indicate 8 million tons of possible ore grading 78%-80% talc. About half of the tonnage would require no stripping if mined by open pit methods, while the remainder would require limited stripping. Recoveries of 85%-90% are indicated between $50,000 and $100,000 this year to prove up the last Lake project is a joint venture between Highwood Resources and Hecla M ining, with the latter earning a 50% interest by completing a feasibility and marketing study, reimbursing Highwood 50% of its exploration costs (estimated to be $8 million), and bringing the project to production. 006 Reserves at 1.6 million tons 005

Reserves at the property total 1.6 million tons grading 0.85% beryllium oxide. Included in the figure are 435,000 tons of 1.4% beryllium oxide and 0.26% yttrium oxide, in addition to appreciable levels of niobium and other rare earth elements. Beryllium and the rare earth elements are used in high technology electronic products; beryllium is primarily used as an alloy of copper.

Among other applications, graphite is used in furnace linings and for the manufacture of crucibles, in the making of steel to raise the carbon content and as a substitute for asbestos in brake linings. Three companies involved in exploration in Ontario — Cal Graphite, Princeton Resources and Stewart Lake Resources — are hoping to become producers of flake graphite. All three are exploring properties in the same gneissic complex in the Grenville geologic province.

Cal is currently in the pre-production phase on 1,000 acres of land situated near Huntsville. An open pit with a daily production rate of 3,000 tons is envisaged by 1989. Ore reserves are estimated at 29.5 million tons grading an average 4% graphitic carbon.

Princeton already has a pilot plant operating on its property near Bissett Creek, located between Ottawa and North Bay. An open pit mine and milling facility which could produce 15,000 tonnes of the mineral a year is planned.

Stewart Lake is exploring its Kirkham project located 25 mi north of Kingston; the property is held under a royalty option agreement with Falconbridge Ltd. Early indications are that this property is smaller than the above two deposits but the grade of the flake graphite is higher.

Canada has one graphite producer at present, a small open pit operation located about 150 mi north of Montreal. The mine, owned by Asbury Grafite de Quebec, operates during the summer months only.

North America’s primary producer of gallium and germanium is found in Utah, near St. George, where Musto Exploration has been developing its Apex project. Gallium is a liquid metal which can be combined with phosphor, arsenic or antimony to form compounds which have semiconductor properties. Germanium, hard and brittle, is a semiconductor with properties between those of a metal and an insulator; it is used in making infrared optics.

Musto began production at Apex during the second half of 1985, with the first gallium metal produced in March, 1986. The germanium refinery was placed in operation later that year.

Wollastonite, a calcium silicate, is used by plastic and resin ers and makers of ceramic products, who use the mineral for glazing. A promising deposit of wollastonite can be found in Marmora Twp., 60 mi northwest of Kingston, Ont.

Owner of the property is Black Hawk Mining, which has made an agreement with Cominco Ltd. whereby the latter will fund all work necessary to make a production decision in return for a 51% interest in the property. Estimated cost of that work is $400,000. The deposit contains an estimated two million tons of ore averaging about 40% wollastonite.

In Quebec, about 200 mi north of Montreal, is a mica deposit being mined by Suzorite Mica Products, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lacana Mining. Mica is used primarily for plastics reinforcement, asbestos replacement, joint cement and oil well drilling muds. The company sold about 13,000 tons of the mineral in 1986 and is expecting to boost that total to 14,500 tons this year.