EXPLORATION ’93 — Newfoundland weathering exploration

“I’m hanging in there, that’s all you can do these days,” says Peter Dimmell, a mineral consultant and spokesman for Newfoundland and Labrador Explorationists (NALE), a group representing miners, prospectors and the like. D.Timmell’s response is typical of how people in the Newfoundland mineral industry feel lately. With mining and exploration down almost half of what it was in the glory days of the late 1980s, it has become survival of the fittest.

Government economists predict only $8-10 million will be spent on mineral exploration in Newfoundland and Labrador this year, about the same as 1992. So while things aren’t projected to get much better just yet, at least they’re not getting worse.

Like last year, most of the activity this summer will centre around the search for base metal deposits in the centre and along the south and west coasts of the island. Gold exploration continues to idle in low gear. Companies looking for industrial minerals are holding their own. However, little grassroots exploration of any kind is expected on the island this summer, according to Norman Mercer and Jim Hinchey of the Newfoundland Department of Mines and Energy. Most of that type of work will occur in Labrador where Falconbridge and Noranda (TSE) have been active recently. The biggest player on the island will likely be Noranda which has just bought the old concession lands held by Anglo Newfoundland Development Corp. “That’s a huge piece of ground if you look at it on a claim map,” Dimmell said. “It’s also one of the better, if not the best, pieces of relatively unexplored ground in Canada for base metals.”

Of all the big mining companies that were active in the province in the late 1980s, only two still maintain offices here, Noranda in Corner Brook and Teck (TSE) in St. John’s.

At this year’s Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto, NALE and the Newfoundland Department of Mines and Energy will team up with mining interests in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in a united effort to attract exploration back to the east coast.

The three Atlantic provinces will operate a communal “rock room” at the convention, displaying some of the region’s brightest attractions. “We seem to have problems in the Atlantic provinces getting mining companies to come east of Quebec,” Dimmell said. “But once we get them here, they seem to be able to move fairly freely among the three provinces.” Dimmell said the three provinces are trying to dispel a long-held industry mindset that the Canadian Shield is the only place in Canada worth exploring and that the Appalachian Mountains, which run through Atlantic Canada, lack mineral potential.

“So that’s the whole idea of that, to get them east of Quebec and see if we can bring them to Newfoundland as part of their tour down here,” he added. Another problem facing the Newfoundland mineral industry is one affecting Canada generally — competition from countries with cheaper labor costs and less government red tape.

“I think Newfoundland generally is not considered a bad place to be, from the point of view of mining friendliness,” Dimmell said. “But when you can go down to places like Chile and find a gold deposit that contains three or four million oz. and is relatively cheap to get into and operate once you get it going, well . . . those are the types of things we’re competing against.” Nevertheless, Dimmell and others on the island remain optimistic about the future. Dimmell points to a government-sponsored prospector training program which drew 220 applications for 20 positions this year.

The more people out in the woods kicking over rocks, the better, Dimmell said. — Craig Westcott is a writer from St. John’s.