By NICK STEWART
While a keen sparkle still shines on the local gold prospects, experts say that it’s nickel that’s likely to act as the primary driver of Timmins’ mining exploration activity through 2008.
“Nickel is one of the metals that wasn’t mined on a big scale in Timmins before, but it could become one of the metals that actually supports mining and exploration in Timmins over the next little while,” Robert Calhoun, manager of Discover Abitibi, says.
Chief among these developments is the nickel-producing Liberty Mines Inc., whose Redstone property 25 kilometres southeast of the city hosts a recently commissioned 1,500-tonne-per-day mill. This mill will feed initially from the associated Redstone Mine, and the company’s impending McWatters Mine, where full production is expected to reach as much as 1,300 tonnes per day by the third quarter of 2008.
The company is also looking to its nearby Hart property, where three drills are turning to determine its potential as a third mine.
A number of juniors have been turning up significant nickel finds in the Timmins area as well, keeping Timmins district geologist Ann Wilson and the staff at the local Ontario Geological Survey office much busier than usual.
“We just can’t keep up,” Wilson says. “The biggest commodity out there right now is nickel, and while that tends to be one of the usual suspects, it’s not typically as prominent as it is currently.”
In particular, Langmuir township located roughly 25 kilometres southeast of Timmins has proven to be a hotbed of nickel exploration.
Golden Chalice made waves there in 2007 with its discovery of a nickel intersection XYZ, which it has since followed up with additional drilling.
Nearby, Inspiration Mining Corporation has been continuing to explore its Langmuir property. Acquired in 2004, this property includes the past-producing Langmuir #1 mine, which produced 101,132 tonnes grading 1.74 per cent nickel, and most of the Langmuir #2 mine, which produced 1,133,750 tonnes grading 1.45 per cent nickel. Drilling is still ongoing at the site, with more detailed work expected in early 2008 to determine the economic feasibility of the nickel mineralization.
A portion of the Langmuir #2 mine also extends onto property held by Starfire Minerals Inc., where a historical inferred resource of 181,400 tonnes grading 1.55 per cent nickel is thought to remain. One drill is turning there as part of an eight-hole, 1,000-metre program.
“Langmuir is hopping,” Wilson says. “It’s an area that’s always been known for its nickel exploration. While the Langmuir #1 and #2 were never enormous producers, being relatively small mines, but the fact is that the nickel price and the cobalt prices -- all the other associated elements that go with nickel and copper -- are astronomical, and those are things that nobody ever looked at these deposits for.”
While little is occurring out of the ordinary at Xstrata Nickel’s Montcalm mine -- “it’s business as usual,” Wilson says -- some interest has begun to stir in the surrounding properties.
Having obtained the 355-square-kilometre West Timmins project as a joint venture with Xstrata, Pacific North West Capital Corp. spent much of its local energies in deep drilling the property. A first phase, or 2,500 metres of a 4,000-metre drill program was completed mid-summer, with the remaining 1,500 metres of the program having begun shortly thereafter. The company may vest a 100 per cent interest in the project by spending $4 million over four years, though Xstrata has retained the right to earn 65 per cent of that interest.
Also committing to working nearby is the International Nickel Ventures Corporation, which recently entered into an agreement to purchase three properties from FNX Mining Inc.’s subsidiary, Aurora Platinum Corp.
While two of those properties, the Lansdowne House and Fishtrap projects, are located in the James Bay lowlands, the third sits next to the Montcalm mine. Known simply as the Montcalm property, the 2,320-hectare site has scarcely been explored, with the most recent ground electromagnetic survey having been completed in 1995.
www.discoverabitibi.com
www.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndm/mines/ogs/Default_e.asp
