Mining company discovers rarity in district

FORT FRANCES—They were looking for one thing—and found another.
MetalCORP geologists working on the North Rock property, located in Watten and Halkirk townships, were trying to uncover copper when they discovered a significant high-grade platinum mineralized zone on the property’s east zone.
What made the discovery even more astonishing is the rarity of platinum in Canada—let alone Northwestern Ontario.
“It’s mostly mined in South Africa. It’s very hard to find in Canada, but we obviously have a good one there in Fort Frances,” noted Dan Courtney, the company’s director of investor relations.
“We were trying to advance an old copper deposit identified by Noranda back in the ’60s,” Aubrey Eveleigh, vice-president of exploration, told the Toronto Star last week.
“I said, ‘This looks like a rock that should have platinum in it.’ And lo and behold, it was there.
“It’s a humbling business,” he added. “You think you know it all and then you get surprises.”
The market for platinum also is extremely strong right now, with the metal trading consistently above the $1,000/oz (U.S.) mark for the last year. And experts say it shows no signs of dropping anytime soon.
“Platinum is definitely commanding a fantastic price right now because of the rarity of it,” Courtney noted. “It’s used in several different industries.
“It’s used in the automotive industry for catalytic converters, it’s used in scientific processes, and now it’s become very fashionable for jewellery.”
But that doesn’t mean the precious metal is ready to be mined.
“There’s a lot of research and work that has to be done before you can turn something into a mine,” Courtney explained. “But it’s certainly a big possibility.
“We have four major companies signed on the property who have quite an interest in it just because of what we’ve found there already.”
Courtney added MetalCORP geologists will be going back to drilling on the property this spring.
“That means more exploration,” he stressed. “We going to be looking for expansion of the zones that we already have and to firm up what we have on the property.”
But residents in the Fort Frances area could see some benefits in the near future.
“We just signed $50 million in financing and what a lot of people don’t realize is when we get that financing, most of that money is spent in Northwestern Ontario,” Courtney noted.
“If we’re in Fort Frances exploring, we’ll have people staying in hotels, renting vehicles, buying fuel, eating in restaurants, etc.
“And if it does turn into a mineable property, then the extent it will have on the community will be very positive,” he added. “Look at how many people would be employed there if it became a full-blown mine.”