Noront Resources’ new base metals discovery in the McFaulds Lake area in Ontario’s Far North boosted claim staking and exploration and helped Ontario reach a record number of 367,000 active claims at the end of 2008, up from 307,000 a year earlier.
Gold remains the primary focus of exploration in the province because of Ontario’s gold-rich history, its potential for new discoveries, and a gold price above US$900 during the recent economic turmoil.
All stages of the mining cycle from prospecting to exploration and development to production were doing well through the first half of 2008; however, the recent decline of most metal prices has negatively affected exploration and production at some base metal mines. In spite of the downturn, claim staking remains at record levels and work continues on most of the larger exploration programs.
Ontario is among the top 10 jurisdictions for exploration spending worldwide. Much of this is due to the quality of infrastructure, the diverse and unexplored geology, accessible and reliable geoscience information, a stable regulatory environment and favourable tax policies, including a permanent flow-through share program for exploration.
Last year saw production begin at De Beers Canada’s Victor diamond mine in the James Bay lowlands. This $1-billion mine continues to attract attention from the exploration community, and companies exploring in the area are taking advantage of the infrastructure developed during Victor’s construction. The mine is expected to stimulate the local economy and contribute $6.7-billion to Ontario’s overall economy.
Base Metals
Noront continued to lead the flurry of exploration activity in the McFaulds Lake area of the James Bay lowlands where more than 30 companies are exploring for base and precious metals. Dubbed the “Ring of Fire,” numerous companies are drilling encouraging intersections of nickel, copper, chromium, platinum group metals (PGMs) and gold.
Noront provided a resource estimate for its flagship Eagle One deposit that includes an indicated resource of 1.6 million tonnes grading 1.96% nickel, 1.18% copper, 0.15 gram gold per tonne, 3.91 grams palladium, 1.12 grams platinum, and 3.81 grams silver. The inferred resource is 1.08 million tonnes grading 2.39% nickel, 1.27% copper, 0.13 gram gold per tonne, 4.5 grams palladium, 1.37 platinum and 4.21 grams silver.
On another front, Noront continued to report high-chromium-chromite mineralization on its Blackbird One project. Diamond-drill intersections of 49.4 metres grading 39.1% Cr2O3 (27.4% Cr) with a chromium-to-iron ratio of 2.47 have been encountered. Despite the current downturn in fiscal markets, Noront recently raised $18.8 million to further develop its exploration projects.
Golden Chalice Resources continued diamond drilling on the Langmuir project for komatiite-hosted sulphide mineralization. One of a number of recent nickel discoveries around the Shaw Dome, south of Timmins, Langmuir returned diamond-drill intersections up to 72.5 metres wide grading 1.14% nickel. Core from a recent infill hole assayed 1.63% nickel over 16.2 metres, between 103 and 120 metres from surface.
Xstrata Nickel recently announced that it will close two mines in the Sudbury area but will spend US$455 million over the next two years to develop the new Fraser Morgan mine. A 2.5-km underground ramp will be built to link the existing Fraser mine with Fraser Morgan. Production at Fraser Morgan is under way and it will produce 620,000 tonnes of ore (7,200 tonnes of refined nickel) annually. The Nickel Rim South nickel project is also an important part of Xstrata’s plans. The $850-million nickel-copper-PGMs project should begin annual production of 1.25 million tonnes of ore in 2010.
Millstream Mines released a National Instrument 43-101-compliant resource estimate on the Potter mine property in Munro Twp. There is an indicated mineral resource of 3.03 million tonnes grading 1.45% copper, 1.19% zinc, 389.7 parts per million (ppm) cobalt, 11.1 ppm silver, and 127.5 parts per billion (ppb) gold. The inferred mineral resource was 2.07 million tonnes grading 1.08 % copper, 1.05 % zinc, 301.4 ppm cobalt, 8.7 ppm silver, and 81.7 ppb gold. To date, a total of 71 diamond drill holes have been drilled on Potter: 46 of these were for exploration in the vicinity of the Potter mine. Eleven mineralized zones have been identified to date.
Landore Resources continued exploration on its Junior Lake properties, east of Armstrong. As a result of substantial drilling and exploration in the latter half of 2007, Landore completed and announced an NI 43-101-compliant resource estimate the VW nickel deposit and the neighbouring B4-7 nickel-copper zone. Drilling and metallurgical testing continued through 2008.
Gold
Lake Shore Gold is building the latest gold mine in Timmins. The company is sinking a vertical shaft to a depth of 710 metres to access underground ore hosted by mafic and ultramafic rocks. A ramp currently being excavated will provide access to near-surface ore to provide mill feed. Lake Shore Gold has purchased and refurbished the Bell Creek mill and will truck ore about 40 km from the Timmins West project to the mill. The project had a budget of $75 million in 2008 and production is scheduled to begin in 2009.
The indicated resource is 3.27 million tonnes running 8.62 grams gold per tonne or 1.29 million oz. gold. Another 968,000 inferred tonnes run 5.62 grams gold.
Rainy River Resources has raised more than $40 million to fund an aggressive exploration program on its Rainy River properties. Since acquiring the properties three years ago, drilling has located six gold trends. About 75% of the drilling was spent delineating the 17/ODM gold zone, at 30 metre centres, for a strike length of 800 metres to a vertical depth of 350 metres. The indicated resource estimate for the 17/ODM zone, at a 0.5 gram per tonne cutoff, is 1.39 million oz. gold and 2.89 million oz. silver. Another 2.23 million oz. gold and 5.11 million oz. silver are inferred.
Detour Gold has discovered Canada’s largest undeveloped gold resource. To date, Detour has drilled off a measured and indicated resource of 10.7 million oz. gold in 242.9 million tonnes grading 1.38 grams. In 2008, Detour completed more than 110 km of diamond drilling on the past-producing gold mine, 200 km northeast of Timmins. The company is now completing a feasibility study with the aim of returning the Detour Lake mine to production.
Apollo Gold received the necessary permits and approvals needed to begin mining its Black Fox property, near Matheson. Removal of glacial till over the open pit should be done early in 2009. Mining is expected to begin in March 2009 and, by the second quarter, the open pit will produce 1,500 tonnes of ore per day or enough to feed the mill. Underground mining will be deferred until after this year.
Apollo recently reviewed the costs associated with upgrading the Black Fox mill complex (purchased earlier from St Andrew Goldfields) to process 1,500 tonnes of ore per day. It will take about $17 million and could be finished by early April 2009.
In 2005, Endurance Gold acquired an option to earn a 100% interest in the 6-claim, 1,344-hectare Pardo property, 65 km northeast of Sudbury. An historic induced-polarization (IP) survey defined numerous anomalies thought to be pyritic conglomerate over a 2-km stretch. Trenching on the anomalies returned gold values up to 7.03 grams per tonne in grab and 1.42 grams gold from channel samples.
In 2006, stripping and channel sampling by Endurance opened up several zones of previously identified gold mineralization in the conglomerates. In 2007, Endurance completed a 56-hole, 653-metre diamond drilling program at Pardo, over a 24-sq.-km area of the Cobalt embayment. The program targeted strong IP anomalies in the vicinity and along strike from surface sampling done in late 2006. Drilling in 2008 on Pardo cons
isted of a 41-hole, 973.3-metre program, with the best result grading 1.58 grams gold over 7.6 metres. Endurance believes that the widespread occurrence of low-grade gold mineralization in the basal conglomerate on Pardo, and the potential size of the target, warrant further work.
Underground drilling of the high-grade 8 zone gold mineralization began at year-end from the 10th level of Claude Resources’ dewatered Madsen mine shaft. A total of 22,000 metres of underground drilling are budgeted for 2009. The 2008 surface drilling program extended the known mineralization of the Fork zone (17.32 grams gold per tonne over 10.33 metres) and discovered a high-grade quartz vein system running 185.6 grams silver over 0.41 metre in the footwall of the past-producing Starratt-Olsen mine.
Brett Resources reports drill results from eight holes drilled on the Hammond Reef property, located 23 km northeast of Atikokan. Highlights these holes include hole BR-113 with 154 metres of 1.21 grams gold per tonne. Drill holes BR-111 through BR-114 are infill holes drilled West of Mitta Lake and have confirmed the continuity of the mineralized lenses. Earlier holes in this area were not drilled deep enough to test for this mineralization. Step-out drilling southeast of Mitta Lake verifies the resource block model that predicts that thick mineralized gold lenses plunge gently to the northeast. Southwest of Mitta Lake, drilling verifies the presence of thick gold mineralized lenses that start near surface and reach about 300 metres below surface. These results are also consistent with the resource model that indicated that 97% of the 4.8-million-oz. resource lies inside 300 metres from surface.
Other minerals
Phoscan Chemical plans to build a phosphoric acid fertilizer plant using feedstock from the Martison Lake phosphate project, situated northeast of Hearst. If all goes according to plan, phosphate-bearing sand will be mined by open pit and delivered via a 70-km-long pipeline to the fertilizer plant.
Phoscan has a measured and indicated resource of 62.2 million tonnes grading 23.55% P2O5 and an inferred resource of 55.7 million tonnes with a grade of 21.87% P2O5. The project is undergoing a 2-year feasibility study at a cost of US$40 million.
Not just diamonds, but gold, sapphires and rubies added glitter to Dianor Resources’ Leadbetter diamond project.
The company began permitting to extract a 50,000-tonne bulk sample of diamond-bearing conglomerate from the property, located just north of Wawa. Dianor has outlined a geological inventory of about 550-million-tonnes that be will tested as a source of Archean diamonds. The bulk sample should determine the content and quality of diamonds and if the deposit could support mining.
Policy
Ontario is committed to sustaining global confidence in our well-earned reputation as a leading jurisdiction for exploration and is working to address issues such as sustainable development, land rights and the interests of First Nations. The Ontario Geological Survey (OGS) Branch of the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines provides extensive and objective information on Ontario’s geology and its world-class mineral resources. Please visit our website at www.mndm.gov.on.ca
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