More discoveries (1982-89)

Jan. 25, 1982

Excitement is mounting as observers absorb the significance of the recent announcement by Cominco Ltd. that the company is studying the feasibility of a huge zinc-lead-silver deposit in Alaska.

Called the Red Dog, it is estimated to contain some 85 million tons of 17.1% zinc, 5.0% lead, and 2.4 oz. silver per ton, inferred from 14,700 ft. of drilling in 39 holes. The 2-year study carried out by Cominco subsidiary Cominco American Inc., under an agreement with Alaska’s Nana Regional Corp. The latter is owned by about 4,600 Inuit shareholders.

The deposit is already being described as one of the biggest and richest anywhere in the world.

April 22, 1982

Kerr Addison Mines here, 25 miles east of Kirkland Lake, has become only the fifth single gold mine in North America to produce 10,000,000 oz. of the yellow metal.

The milestone was reached with the ceremonial pouring of an 870-oz. brick in the mine’s refinery, containing the 10,000,000th oz. The pour was started by Kerr Addison’s chairman of the board, W. S. Row, manager of the mine when it began production back in 1938 and the man still known as “Mr. Kerr Addison.”

According to Kerr mine manager D. S. Douglass, only four other single mines in North America have so far reached or exceeded the 10,000,000-oz. plateau. Three of these are Canadian — the Dome, Hollinger, and McIntyre mines, all in the famed Porcupine camp. The fourth, and biggest of them all is the Homestake mine in South Dakota.

Aug. 26, 1982

Exploration will soon be taking place at a frantic pace in the Hemlo gold area discovered last year by International Corona Resources. The number of active companies in the area means that by next summer, there could be as many as 20 separate drilling programs completed or under way.

That the Hemlo area is the most exciting new gold scene to hit Canada in recent years is now without a doubt. Out of two drilling programs conducted during the past 18 months three important gold deposits have been discovered. The Corona find, since confirmed by Teck Corp., consists of two deposits grading 0.30 oz. and 0.186 oz. gold per ton in reserves of 1,300,000 and 380,000 tons respectively. So far indicated on the adjoining Long Lac Mineral Exploration claims are 1.8 million tons grading 0.175 oz. per ton.

This auspicious record has prompted speculation that Hemlo could be the first new gold camp in the country since the Red Lake area during the depression. And because of the number of companies now planning substantial exploration programs, the area will likely develop a lot faster.

March 23, 1987

A terrific hole, all in sulphide ore, of 620 ft grading 0.3 oz gold per ton has been pulled on the Goldstrike property in the Carlin gold belt area of Nevada by operator American Barrick Resources.

This hole which intersected gold continuously from 1,110 ft to 1,730 ft and averages 0.3 oz. is the prime cause of American Barrick’s share price to race up $3.13 to $39.25 a new high on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the past several days. At press-time the shares were at the $38 level.

This hole has meant good news also for Franco Nevada Mining Corp. which receives a 4% net smelter royalty and a 5% net profit interest on the property, which has been in continuous operation since 1979 at a rate of 44,000 oz of gold a year. Franco shares ran up $3.38 to $8.38, a new high. At presstime Franco Nevada was trading at $8.25.

The hole is part of an exploration drilling program at depth at the property. The drilling has indicated a number of significant intersections of sulphide gold mineralization below a depth of about 1,000 ft.

Above that depth, “we are dealing with an oxide deposit close to the surface which has proven and probable reserves in the area of 12 million tons grading 0.05 oz. gold per ton,” explains Robert M. Smith, chief operating officer for American Barrick.

Barrick has budgeted between $4 and $5 million on drilling the Goldstrike property this year. The funds will go towards fully outlining the shallower oxide reserves, as well as the deeper sulphide gold mineralization between the 1,000 ft to 1,700-ft. depths. “After that we may go deeper,” says Mr Smith.

Oct. 26, 1987

Nobody — but nobody — in the entire financial community has ever witnessed anything quite like the market debacle and bloodletting that has taken place on leading stock exchanges around the world this week — the rewards of a 5-year bull market wiped out in a single day. The panic selling and resultant losses far exceed that of 1929 which led to the Great Depression.

Nor at this stage does anyone know for sure just what it all means. Is the frightful market crash simply a long overdue correction or an ominous prediction that the global economy is about to slide into another deep recession — or depression?

The overnight wipeout of hundreds of billions of dollars here and in the U.S.A. is bound to affect the whole economy. Yet politicians remain sanguine, pointing out that the drastic collapse of share prices is out of step with advances in the economy both here and in the U.S. That may or may not be so. Hadn’t we been assured that built-in market safeguards precluded anything like the October ’29 massacre?

Aug. 21, 1989

The largest underground gold mine in Canada belongs to Corona Corp., the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled.

The court upheld a decision rendered in 1986, which awarded the Williams mine in the Hemlo area of northern Ontario developed by LAC Minerals, to Corona upon payment of $154 million plus interest. (That payment is now worth about $210 million.)

The conclusion of the legal battle which began almost eight years ago marks the transformation of a junior mining company known as International Corona Resources into a major North American gold producer

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