Members of the mining industry routinely say the best place to find a new deposit is in the shadow of an old headframe, or at the bottom of an exhausted mine as in the case of the two winners of this year's Ontario Prospector Award.
Kirkland Lake Gold Inc.'s chief geologists Michael Sutton and
Stewart Carmichael were given the award for the discovery of a
new system of high grade sulphide hosted gold zones in the
Kirkland Lake camp.
The award was presented at the Ontario Exploration and
Geoscience Symposium in Sudbury this week.
"I think we should soon have a second Sir Harry Oaks coming out
of Kirkland Lake with this discovery," said Sutton. "Our
exploration team of young kids out of university have a passion
for finding gold and want to make this project work for the
town of Kirkland Lake."
The Kirkland Lake Gold exploration team analyzed old
exploration data and took calculated risks on new geological
concepts which resulted in extensive new gold deposits being
found, giving a new lease on life for the previously exhausted
Macassa Mine.
Sutton also said that this new discovery should dispel the idea
that everything is all mined out in the Kirkland Lake area and
was proud and thankful of the tremendous support and
co-operation the company has received from the local
community.
In December 2001, Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. purchased the Macassa
Mine and the 1,500 ton per day mill along with four former
producing gold properties - Kirkland Minerals, Tech-Hughs, Lake
Shore and Wright Hargraves. These properties have historically
produced some 22 million ounces of gold.
The Ontario Exploration and Geoscience Symposium was held in
Sudbury for the first time. It was a resounding success,
attracting more attendants than previous symposiums held in
Toronto.
Garry Clark, the executive director of the Ontario Prospectors
Association felt the success was partly due to the fact that
the northern location was closer to the exploration
community.
In fact, the Sudbury Basin is the most active exploration camp
in all of North America and it is estimated that $340 million
will be spent throughout the entire province in 2006.
Exploration junior Wallbridge Mining Company looks for and
develops nickel, copper and platinum group element
deposits.
The company's primary focus is on its large portfolio of
properties in the under-explored footwall rocks surrounding the
Sudbury Basin- the company has the third largest land holdings
in Sudbury after CVRD Inco and Xstrata Nickel.
There are two known environments in the Sudbury Basin that host
ore. The contact areas, which are found at the edge or
perimeter of the basin and the footwalls, located beyond or out
from the contact areas.
The contact part of the basin is where many of the previous
easy- to-detect mines have been found. However, the Copper
Cliff South and Worthington Mines were found on footwalls.
Wallbridge's team of geologists have been looking at the
geology of the region from a new innovative perspective.
They have extended the search for greenfield deposits further
out into the footwall regions than what was previously
considered promising territory.
In late November, the company announced the discovery of a
second offset dyke and extended the offset dyke found last year
3.5 kilometres northward to the northern boundary of the joint
venture owned property with Pele Mountain Resouces.
In a news release, Wallbridge president Alar Soever stated,
"The discovery of a second offset dyke so early in the program
validates our North Range exploration strategy which is founded
on the belief that the footwall rocks are very poorly explored
and a great deal of Sudbury geology and mineralization remains
to be discovered."
FNX Limited's vice-president of exploration, Gord Morrison, and
Catharine Farrow, director of exploration and chief geologist,
both have worked and/or evaluated and studied most of the
world's major nickel sulphide and platinum group elements
deposits. In a lengthy interview, they discussed the company's
dedicated belief in the amazing potential of the the Sudbury
Basin.
One of the first points Morrison and Farrrow made was that
people must realize that the Sudbury Basin is not just a nickel
camp.
It is a polymetallic deposit with significant copper and
platinum group metals that could stand on their own. Sudbury is
the third largest producer of platinum after South Africa's
Bushvelt and Norilsk, located in Russia's Siberian north.
And from their extensive international experience, both feel that the basin is an extraordinary mining camp of global significance.
Throughout the conversation, their passion, unique geological
vision and down right obsession with the geology of the basin
was clearly evident. Since 2002, both confessed to practically
living and breathing Sudbury Basin geology.
Starting out as a junior, the culture of the company was comfortable taking risks, that were based on thorough and concise research.
FNX Limited was fortunate to have access to extensive legacy
data from the McCreedy West and Levack properties. They were
able to reevaluate the historic information and apply different
concepts that helped them decide where to drill.
They definitely do things differently at FNX mining, and it has
clearly paid off for the company, the community and the
fortunate investors who were with the company from the
beginning.
FNX was formed in 2002 when it took over five former Inco
properties. All their mineral production is processed at CVRD
Inco's local operations. Their McCreedy West property is
currently in operation and in early next year the Levack site
will begin production.
With a current workforce of about 460 staff and contract
personnel, the rapidly growing mid-tier miner will employ 670
people by the end of next year.
Their success and unique approach has been noted around the
world and other juniors are trying to establish similar
business arrangements like the "FNX model."
However, their biggest accomplishment has been to reignite
interest and excitement in the legendary Sudbury Basin.
The FNX operations have confirmed that there is still enormous
potential in this century old mining camp and many feel we will
still be digging valuable metals out of the ground a hundred
years from now.
An nunderlying theme at this year's Ontario Exploration and
Geoscience Symposium seemed to be that old mining camps should
not be overlooked. It has been decades since the Ontario
Geological Survey has conducted updated geoscience mapping on
the Kirkland Lake,  Red Lake, Timmins and Sudbury Basin
mining camps. Over the past century these mining centres have
contributed hundreds of billions of dollars to the Ontario
economy.
With a once mighty southern Ontario auto industry becoming more
vulnerable to China's manufacturing might, the north's mining
sector must be given more attention.
Stan Sudol is a communications consultant and policy analyst who writes extensively on mining issues. ([email protected])
