Mineral exploration activity has gone through peaks and lulls over the last 30 years in the Kenora District, but this time Craig Ravnaas said it could have some longevity.
 
The Ontario Geological Survey's (OGS) resident geologist said much of the past activity has been tied to whenever the price of gold exceeds $400 an ounce. That is when investor confidence in finance exploration programs soars.
 
Exploration work is at historic highs with the OGS recording 67 projects going on in the Kenora District, which covers Dryden, Sioux Lookout, Ignace and the Fort Frances-Rainy River area.
 
"It's been pretty steady and it's picked up in activity every year," said Ravnaas.
 
There are pockets of junior miners clustered near Kenora, Dryden, Sioux Lookout and Fort Frances.
 
”Properties that were worked in the 1980s are being revisited again,” said Ravnaas, with both old mining camps and virgin ground being explored. “Last year's activity was as busy as it was in the 1980s. We're near historic levels of activity and hopefully programs at the diamond drill stage last year for a multitude of commodities will continue on.”
 
Unlike the go-go 80s, Ravnaas said this stretch might have some legs to it.
 
Despite fluctuating commodity markets, companies are spending more than one year on their properties to gain a full understanding of the geological setting.
 
He points to juniors like Sudbury's Houston Lake Mining, now entering its eighth consecutive year of work at its West Cedartree gold project southeast of Sioux Narrows, where they have completed two diamond drilling programs on their prospective Dogpaw Lake and Dubenski properties.
 
Ravnaas said as companies like Houston Lake have expanded their holdings, they get a better handle on the mineralization and where to explore to find more gold.
 
“This is where you start getting the results."
 
The Kenora District of northwestern Ontario has a wide basket of commodities in dormant deposits being targeted in gold, copper, nickel and platinum group metals, volcanic massive sulphides, lithium-feldspar, iron, molybdenum, uranium and even diamonds.
 
Though the area has a rich gold mining history that dates back to the turn of the last century, there are currently no working mines in the area, aside from an open pit quarry operation run by Nelson Granite in Vermilion Bay.
 
Gazing at coloured blobs and streaks on Ravnaas' geological map in his Kenora office, getting a handle of the regional picture is far from clear.
 
Gold can pretty much be found anywhere in the gabbro (the area's basic rock formation), said Ravnaas.
 
That's where the prospector enters the picture, taking samples and coming up with a new rock types for the area.
 
“It's why we recommend people get out there and ride the logging roads."
 
Ravnaas said there are a slew of good deposits and significant gold properties that are largely dormant.
 
His office is the starting point for prospectors and junior mining companies to examine the area's historical records and to analyze the available airborne and lake sediment data.
 
Along the Highway 17 corridor down to Dryden, Sioux Lookout and Ignace where exploration firms are finding gold, molybdenum, nickel, copper and platinum group metals, silver, zinc and iron.  
 
Companies like Laurentian Goldfields, Treasury Metals, Tamaka Gold and MPH Ventures are in various stages of sampling, drilling in gold zones and conducting airborne surveys. Others like Canadian Arrow Mines, Champion Bear Resources, King's Bay Gold and Teck Cominco are in the early stages of ground exploration, stripping and mapping ground.and planning diamond drill programs.
 
North and east of Kenora, uranium is catching the attention of companies.
 
In 1977, the federal government flew an airborne radiometric survey across Canada and plotted a whole smattering of uranium occurrences. Delta Uranium has followed up their own survey and identified 17 potential mineral areas. Now in their third year, they plan to do more ground exploration work this year. They are joined in the area by joint venture partners Quest Uranium and Temex-Nuinsco.
 
One project that has real mine potential is Canadian Arrow Mines' Kenbridge nickel-copper project near Sioux Narrows, 70 kilometres south of Kenora.
The Sudbury outfit purchased a headframe and hoist before the world money markets tanked last September.
 
With little market appetite to finance base metal projects, Canadian Arrow president Kim Tyler said very little site prep work will be done on Kenbridge this year, since a production decision is likely two years away.
 
“There's not much love for nickel copper projects on market,” said Tyler.
 
It's put further exploration programs on hold while the company gets permits and conducts environmental work.
 
“We lined up a considerable amount of very good targets and we were just about to start drilling in September and we said, 'no we've got to stretch our money and let's sit tight,'” said Tyler. “We've sat quietly on the side waiting for the storm to pass.”
 
The company's other Denmark Lake and East Rim Turtlepond Lake projects are drill-ready, but sitting quietly.
 
However, it didn't stop the company from sending a merger proposal to Ursa Major Minerals, operators of an open pit nickel-copper deposit near Sudbury.
 
With too many nickel juniors vying for a small amount of investment capital, teaming up with Ursa Major as a “strategic partner” is the best way to propel  Kenbridge forward, said Tyler.
 
Though the deal has to be approved by shareholders from other companies, Ursa Major is generating cash by shipping pre-commercial production crude ore from its Shakespeare pit for processing at Xstrata Nickel – money that can help “bootstrap” the Kenbridge project.
 
Despite some historically significant high-grade gold, nickel and base metal deposits, exploration remains unfamiliar territory for many people in the region.
 
It's been learning curve for economic development officials, First Nations and community organizations to re-discover how the industry works.
 
Ravnaas has been walking them through the mineral development sequence at workshops, explaining communities can take advantage on the servicing end and what potentials jobs are available.
 
So far, the economic spinoffs are hard to gauge because the activity is in the bush, said Ravnaas.

“It's sort of an industry that's hidden.”
 
The hard-hit forestry town of Dryden has been the most gung-ho to develop the mining industry in the area. The town invested $25,000 for a small geoscience study that attracted Laurentian Goldfields to explore near the city and web-published an exploration resource guide, a kind of catalogue of local mining service and supply firms.
 
The sector has real possibility to get bigger. Ravnaas proposed a full-blown government-funded geoscience initiative to local economic development officers to identify about 20 gaps in the OGS' analysis of the district. It would be similar to the successful region-wide programs conducted in Timmins-Kirkland Lake, Greenstone and now Atikokan-Mine Centre.


www.mndm.gov.on.ca 
www.canadianarrowmines.ca