LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (December 23, 1991)

I note that the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame, in its fourth year of existence, has decided to induct Sir William Logan at its Jan. 6, 1992, ceremony at Toronto (T.N.M., Dec. 2/91).

My thought is that the perspective is backward. Logan brings “fame” to the Hall of Fame by his induction. But the Hall should be considered as “infamous” in that Logan was considered in the fourth year, not the first. All geoscientists in Canada should stand on the shoulders of this giant. Gordon Winder

Professor (Emeritus) of Geology

University of Western Ontario

London, Ont.

With reference to your editorial on Windy Craggy (T.N.M., Dec. 9/91), I take strong exception to the manner in which the “value” of this deposit has been represented.

It brought to mind a somewhat humorous situation a few years ago when a prospector came to me with a property for sale. His “value” of that property not only included a base metal showing, but valued the individual rock components such as magnesium, aluminum, silicon, etc. Needless to say, the “in-place value” was in the billions of dollars. (This is an exaggerated circumstance which is not meant to apply to Windy Craggy.)

I would suggest it is less misleading to value a deposit on “minable reserves” and “recoverable metal,” the latter being 88% copper recovery into a copper concentrate, according to earlier information published about the project.

Additionally, placing a value on the cobalt content is questionable. Unless Geddes Resources plans to build a special plant, normal copper smelters that would buy the concentrate would not pay for a cobalt content, which in this instance would not appear to be high enough to warrant special consideration. Conventional copper smelting would also take out a large proportion of cobalt as a component of the slag.

As is well known by the nickel industry, unless a certain effort is made to recover cobalt, much is lost in converting concentrate to matte. Windy Craggy needs all of the help it can get if it is ever to become a mine. It was nice of the editor to support the project, but surely it is important to represent the “value” in a realistic sense.

Louis Bernard

Extractive Metallurgist

Jan H. Reimers and Associates

Oakville, Ont.

I am writing in response to your article “Diamond fever hits Yellowknife” (T.N.M., Dec. 9/91).

Since much of the Yukon is unglaciated and in pre-glacial time experienced deep laterization, a better approach to search for and exploit diamonds would be in and from the pre-glacial alluvial drainage system, similar to the search and exploitation of placer gold.

More expensive development and mining of the secondarily enriched sub-outcrop can follow with the possible mining of kimberlitic host rock. One of Canada’s best “pan prospectors,” Bill Heshka, a friend and co-worker, showed me a small perfect diamond, neatly wrapped in paper that he had found more than a decade ago in the Yukon. Unfortunately, it was in a high bank of glacial debris, so a search for its source or a concentration of others was impossible.

Another old master of the pan and a co-worker, “Stampede” John Stenbratten, also showed me two fine but small diamonds he had found in “a Yukon stream” and which he had mounted into a tie-pin for his “sportin” trips “outside.” When I asked if he would sell it he said, “No! I’m gonna take it with me to the end of trail.” And he did.

Franc Joubin

Toronto