A Toronto gold junior miner is getting into the cobalt game.
Argo Gold announced June 12 that it’s staked more than 2,700 hectares of ground in northwestern and northeastern Ontario.
Growing concerns over global cobalt supply and a 10-year forecast of a triple-sized demand for the mineral prompted the company to acquire some property.
In the Werner Lake area near Kenora, they’ve acquired 942 hectares for their Fortune Lake Property.
Located 10 kilometres east of the former Werner Lake Mine, it’s on the eastern end of a geological structure called the Werner-Rex Lakes Fault Zone.
The Werner Lake Mine was staked by prospectors in 1928. Ventures Ltd. (later Falconbridge) mined it in1940-44, producing 143,386 pounds of cobalt.
There have been showings of copper and nickel adjacent to the old mine property but cobalt values are low.
Still, Argo believes there’s enough potential to explore further.
Argo’s 890-hectare Campfire Lake Property is 50 kilometres east of the Werner Lake Mine site and is on trend with the Werner-Rex Lakes Fault.
Cobalt and copper samples were taken by the Ontario Geological Survey during a lake sediment survey in 2014. There’s no record of previous staking in the area.
At its Keelow Lake property, between Wawa and Sault Ste. Marie, the company staked 945 hectares.
A cluster of anomalous cobalt was found in lake sediment within a small watershed.
The lack of detailed geological mapping, geophysics and some unverified historical work warrants further investigation, said the company.
Argo Gold has a stable of gold and silver exploration properties in the Wawa, Pickle Lake and Timmins area.
