Prospectors net $9 million to explore ’30s copper mine

Long-time followers of the industry hold onto your hats.

Prospectors Airways, an old name from the dirty 30s, has resurfaced on the Vancouver Stock Exchange. (The original Prospectors Airways surrendered its charter in November, 1975.) Not only is the name a blast from the past, so are the properties the company is re-examining. Under the direction of Edward Chisholm, R. E. Fortescue, Steve Buchan and R. O. Klassen, Prospectors Airways completed a 600,000- share underwriting last month, netting the company $810,000.

A further $2 million in flow- through funds has also been committed, according to Chisholm. And $7 million more is being finalized, bringing the total to $9.8 million at the company’s disposal.

The new company is using the money to finance work on three claim blocks, all located on tidewater in northern British Columbia, 25 km by boat from the end of the road at Alice Arm, B.C. More than 50 people, employed by the company, were at work in the field at presstime.

The first property is an option to earn a 40% interest in the former-producing Anyox mine from Cominco Ltd.

A total of 24 million tons of copper/gold/silver ore was mined from underground workings at the Anyox property by Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting & Power between 1914 and 1935. The average grade was 1.5% copper with appreciable gold values.

The last ore was hoisted in 1935 when copper was in the 5-7 cents (US)- per-lb range. The mine, mill and smelter were sold to Cominco (then Consolidated Mining & Smelting) in the same year.

Mineralized reserves remaining in the ground at Anyox, stand at 50 million tons at an uneconomic grade of 0.6% copper. “We’re happy with 0.6%, but we need more tonnage,” Steve Buchan tells The Northern Miner.

Joe Fox, director of the Mineral Exploration Research Institute in Montreal, is directing the exploration work. He is optimistic the grade can be raised “a tad” to bring the deposit into the mineable category.

A slightly higher grade, combined with potential as a low-cost open pit could make the deposit a mine.

“We’re looking at a break-even cost of $1.25 a pound,” Buchan says, which translates into a mining and milling cost of about $13.50 per ton of ore mined.

Over $700,000 has been spent on the Anyox property so far this year and another $1.2 million is budgeted for the balance of the year. Granby Property A total of $4 million in flow- through funds, raised through First Century Capital Inc., is earmarked for an adjoining property called the Granby property. About $800,000 has been spent here so far on airborne geophysics and 5,200-ft of drilling on this, a former source of silica flux for the once operating copper smelter at Granby Point.

That silica had quite significant gold values which may have contributed to the profitability of Granby Consolidated’s copper mining operations. A total of 135,000 tons of silica was mined with values averaging 0.065 oz gold per ton after dilution.

Several veins were left behind and have only been partially exploited, leaving significant potential for a small-scale selective gold mining operation. Moly Stock

The third block of claims covers a stockwork on the south end of Granby Point which is mineralized with molybdenum. The stock has not been looked at in an all-inclusive way and presents some interesting exploration possibilities.

Prospectors Airways has 6,128,891 shares issued, trading this week on the VSE in the 80-90 cents range.