Letters (December 07, 1990)

HOYLE POND’S GENESIS

In the september, 1990 issue of the Northern Miner Magazine, the article entitled “Falco’s Golden Egg” refers to the Hoyle Pond discovery and states: “Gold was discovered in 1976 . . . as a result of drilling a wildcat hole . . .” This is unretouched mythology.

In fact, it all started with the Kidd Creek discovery by Texas Gulf Co. in 1964, continued with the search for a concentrator site, claim acquisition and a buildup of knowledge from drilling the chosen site and from outside sources.

The acquisition and drilling of the deposit later known as the Owl Creek deposit added interest in the area, but the gold price in the $35 range was a deterrent to gold exploration at the time. As a result of depressed prices, Dr. R.M. Ginn had difficulty selling Texas Gulf management on the use of geochemical methods in covered areas. However, he persisted and was able to run a few profiles using a mercury “sniffing” method over the Hoyle concentrator tailings pond. This survey produced a sharp negative curve which was tested later in the year (1969) by six drill holes. Two of these holes intersected mineralized zones which assayed 0.18 oz. gold per ton over five feet and 0.19 oz. per ton gold over 10 feet. Gold was still at $35 per oz. Were these the discovery holes? Bob Ginn had recommended both the geochemical survey and the follow-up drilling.

When the gold price rose in the 1970s, Texas Gulf acquired an interest in the Owl Creek deposit from Inco, and then, in 1980, a decision was made to re-investigate the 1969 drill hole results in the Hoyle Pond area by additional drilling. The second hole of the 1980 program cut 18 inches of high-grade gold. Was this the discovery hole?

The people involved in this directed discovery were Bob Ginn, the Timmins exploration staff of Kidd Creek, Vic Kelly and John Heslop.

Without John Heslop, who appeared on the scene in 1981 or 1982 and pushed the Hoyle Pond project through development drilling and into the underground development stage, Hoyle Pond would not have reached production by 1984. He was responsible for not only driving the project but for successfully selling the virtues of a small gold mining operation to somewhat recalcitrant management in Toronto and New York City. At the time, no one could predict that Hoyle Pond would have months when its net would exceed that of its parent.

The record shows that the remarkable success of the Texas Gulf Exploration group from 1954 to 1969 and later in the 1970s and 1980s was the result of a good mix of well trained enthusiasts with accessible, technically trained upper management, money and the ability to make quick decisions.

To say that the group never drilled a wildcat hole would be untrue, but to say that Hoyle Pond was discovered by a wildcat hole is fiction.

David Lowrie. P.Eng.

Willowdale, Ont.