PROFILE Peter Bojtos expands RFC’s Pend Oreille

Situated in northeastern Washington State is the Pend Oreille property, whose Yellowhead zone recently yielded encouraging results. Halfway through the current drill program, RFC Resource Finance, 44% owned by Kerr Addison Mines, has extended the zone’s strike length by 600 ft. That should add at least 700,000 tons to preliminary reserves of 6.2 million tons grading 8.8% zinc and 1.9% lead.

“The next stage is to decide the best method to mine the deposit and the type of equipment to be used for extraction,” President Peter Bojtos, 42, told The Northern Miner. He is also Kerr’s vice-president of corporate development. Kerr’s strategy to develop and operate mines remains unchanged, he says, although the company has a new president, Andre Fortier, as a result of the Noranda group’s recent reshuffle.

Bojtos is excited about the property’s limestone environment, which creates a natural buffer against any acid-generating potential in the mineralization. “I feel at home with limestone,” says Bojtos, who grew up in Britain and used to explore old mines and caves in the limestone areas.

When Douglas Nicholson, former RFC president, and partner Carl Ashenhurst approached Kerr for seed money, Bojtos recommended initial study of Pend Oreille. In December, 1987, Kerr provided $3 million to start the junior company off. RFC optioned Pend Oreille in late 1988 and a year later Bojtos became a director. In October, 1989, RFC raised $5 million through public financing for dewatering and drilling programs and in June, 1990, borrowed $1 million from Kerr for immediate working capital purposes.

Last November, Kerr agreed to lend another $1 million to advance the project and provide management. As a result, Bojtos succeeded Nicholson as president of RFC.

A professional engineer, Bojtos received his B.Sc. from Leicester University. He worked at the Ma-rampa iron ore mines in Sierra Leone, West Africa, 1972-1975, and then at Callahan Mining’s underground base metal development project in Virginia. In 1977, he joined Agnew Lake Mines, a Kerr subsidiary, and was transferred to Kerr’s Toronto office in 1980.

Bojtos and his wife, Lynn, were married at a mine site in Sierra Leone. She and their son have been underground at Pend Oreille and other mines.

Pend Oreille is “my baby,” says Bojtos. “The sky is the limit once it has its cash flow.”

What is the future for Canada’s mining industry? “Mining is a worldwide industry,” says Bojtos. “Canada is exporting its technology worldwide. You need a homegrown farm to upgrade the technology. Only then can you export it.”