Shifting from diamonds in 2007 to gold has proven a timely move for Northern Superior Resources, an ambitious Sudbury-based junior exploration firm with projects throughout Quebec and northwestern Ontario.
"I'd been talking to a lot of the financial institutions and realized that diamonds in junior exploration had fallen out of favor with the financial community," says Thomas Morris, president and CEO.
"I love the diamond projects ... but the reality is that we simply weren't getting any recognition for the work that we were doing, and it was much the same for many diamond exploration companies. Now we have a series of really promising projects, and I think we've got a lot of potential."
Having joined the company as project manager in 2002 when the company was still known as Superior Diamonds, Morris had first-hand knowledge that the samples being collected for diamond-related work were also being tested for other commodities.
As a result, the company produced a "remarkable database" for various commodities through Ontario and Quebec. When the former president and CEO John Paterson stepped down in 2007, Morris was promoted from vice-president of exploration.
As the company's database showed great potential for gold exploration, Morris rebranded the company as Northern Superior Resources and began moving forward on gold projects through Quebec and northwestern Ontario.
Despite the sprawling nature of the work, much of the company's staff is located in Sudbury, where the company's head offices were moved from Toronto in early 2009.
"There's just a really good support here in Sudbury. I've been in Sudbury for a long time, and there's a tremendous opportunity to tap into human resources here."
He adds that the company has been very fortunate to retain its "exceptional staff," though Morris himself is no slouch: a professional geoscientist with more than 26 years of experience, Morris spent 14 years as a geologist with the Ontario Geological Survey (OGS).
He also serves as the president of the Sudbury chapter of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, sits on the board of directors for the Ontario Prospectors' Association and is involved with the Minister's Advisory Panel for the Mining Act.
His focus, however, remains on Northern Superior Resources' many projects, which include the Thorne Lake property roughly 500 kilometres north of Sioux Lookout.
This project resulted from a series of gold grains found from overburden sampling at the company's former Ellard Lake diamond project.
"If you find between 15 to 25 gold grains in a till sample, you get excited, and we had some up there in the order of 83 grains, so I knew we had something there," says Morris.
Additional staking and till sampling in 2008 turned up three gold grain in-till dispersal trains, with one sample turning up 476 gold grains. What's more, the shape of most of the grains indicated the source was approximately within 200 metres.
The project is under option by International Nickel Ventures, which is funding the project while Northern Superior remains the operator. An eight-hole drill program is due to begin in the fall of 2009.
Work is also planned for the company's Ti-Pa-haa-kaa-ning gold property, which Morris refers to as "the crown jewel."
Located in the Neskantaga First Nation region 560 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, the property is held in joint venture with Lake Shore Gold. The two partners have spent $10 million on the site since 2006.
One sample from the property turned up more than 1,200 gold grains, and the dispersal apron stretches six kilometres wide and over a length of 15 kilometres. This makes it the third-largest gold grain in-till dispersal train in North America, says Morris.
With just 56 drill holes across the property's history, Northern Superior has discovered a brand new greenstone belt on the property as well as potential gold-bearing structures.
Airborne geophysics will be performed in the coming months to better define the shear structures from which the gold grains originally arrived. This and subsequent ground work will help to establish a 2010 drill program, with negotiations being planned with local First Nations to allow for the drill camps.
This year, Northern Superior is also focusing on its Wachigabau project in western Quebec, where negotiations have generated an option and joint venture agreement with Matamec Explorations Inc.
A drill program will begin in the fourth quarter of 2009 and continue through 2010, using $1-million which Northern Superior raised through a mid-summer share offering.
www.nsuperior.com
