Timmins Report Stan West changing DeSantis

The Porcupine branch is prepared to make that recommendation to Ontario Mines Minister Sean Conway.

At the PDA’s recent branch meeting about 35 members present engaged in a lively discussion about the future of prospector’s licence in Ontario.

The discussion was part of a longer discussion on the recommendations made in Conway’s December – issued Green Paper on the proposed revisions to Ontario’s Mining Act.

One of the recommendations of the Green Paper was that prospector’s licence be reissued on the prospector’s birthday, the same as a driver’s licence.

A lengthy discussion took place at the branch meeting about the length of time that should be allowed between licence renewals. In the end, the consensus was that prospector’s licence should be kept, and that they be renewable every three years on the prospector’s birthday, the same system as is currently in place for drivers licence.

The licence holder will be responsible for reporting all changes of address to the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines.

The committee studying submissions that will eventually lead to a newly-revised Ontario Mining Act wants submission to come in a lot faster than they have been.

Ron Gashinski, the newly- appointed Timmins-based manager of mining lands for the northeastern region of the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, said the committee of which he is a member wants to tell local Prospectors and Developers Associations “we’re crying for submissions.”

“We don’t want everyone crying the blues after March 31 (the deadline for submissions),” Gashinski told a packed meeting room of Porcupine Prospectors and Developers Association members recently. “And we also want to get a good balance in the submissions we receive. We want recommendations from companies as well as from individuals and weekend prospectors.”

The 10-member committee is looking at suggestions and recommendations that were made as far back as 1972, said Gashinski.

“Naturally, there are some recommendations that won’t fly,” he said, “and there are others that are very interesting.”

“Our committee is dealing strictly with Chapter One of the Green Paper on revisions to the Mining Act,” Gashinski told the members. “That pertains to the acquisition of ground.”

He said he intends maintaining an open-door policy when it comes to all submissions, so anyone with an idea that might improve the Mining Act need only prepare a submission and deliver it to his office.

“But the submission should deal as much as possible with the Mining Act clause by clause,” he stressed. “That’s the only way to deal with the Act — you have to go beyond the recommendations of the Green Paper.”

Gashinski said he observed a lot of conviction and sincerity on the committee, a sign he thought promising, because “I don’t plan to spin my wheels for the next two years — I want to see an end product. I hope we can all come to a fruitful conclusion.”

He said the thrust of the committee was to have some kind of draftable legislation in place by the end of 1989 — a time frame that seems to agree with the time frame set down by Mines Minister Sean Conway in December.

“But it’s important to get those submissions in,” he said, “because when this thing flies, that’s the end of it for a long time.”

Submission from a few individuals have started to trickle in, he said, but what he hopes doesn’t happen is that the committee gets a truckload of submissions just before the March 31 deadline expires.

Topics for Conway’s Green Paper came to a large degree from submissions approved by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada in 1972.

“We don’t want to write the Mining Act with only our own input,” said Gashinski. “We want to get those submissions coming in.”

The DeSantis gold project of Stan West Mines (TSE) in Timmins has undergone some changes in the last while.

Stan West’s Canadian head, Peter Holmes, was in Timmins recently along with Garry Smith, president of Golden Terrace Resources (TSE) talking about the future of the former-producer.

Stan West, through its holding company Stan North, had divested itself of joint venture partners Noranda Exploration and Canacord Resources.

Holmes says Stan North now has a 48-claim package in Ogden Twp., from which 15% of the potential profits will eventually go the J. V. Bonhomme estate of Timmins.

Now, Golden Terrace has been given the option to earn a 50% interest in the property by spending $2 million on exploration over the next two years. In addition, Golden Terrace paid Stan North $80,000 this year and will pay a further $155,000 next year.

Surface drilling on the property started Jan 12.

“We are now into the first phase of the exploration program,” said Holmes. “Timmins geologist Ed Van Hees has been retained as a geological consultant, and we will all be working close together on this project.”

Previous surface and underground exploration had concentrated on an albatite orebody, which turned out to be uneconomic.

“So we are now planning to explore some classic high grade ore zones,” said Holmes. “For example, on the 733-ft level we drifted on the west and revealed 190 ft of strike length grading 0.56 oz gold per ton. To date, our proven reserves are 161,359 tons grading 0.23 oz. We hope to increase those re serves through the current exploration program.

The exciting thing for us,” said Smith, “is that we now have two juniors on the project. We can go with our own feelings and move very fast. Something this small may not interest a company as big as Noranda.”

For Van Hees’ part, he is very familiar with the nearby Aunor Mine, which lies along the same geological structure as does the DeSantis property. DeSantis is on strike from a string of deposits that run from the Delnite and Aunor through to the DeSantis property.

“The two ore zones are going to be very similar,” said Van Hees.

“Production through the area has averaged in the range of 0.25 oz or better.”

There are four separate identified zones at the deSantis property — the albatite, which is sub- economic, the arsenopyrite, the hydrothermal and the contact. The latter three are the higher-grade zones, and that is where the exploration program will concentrate.

Smith said his company is quite excited about the project.

“The risk market has just about dried up,” he said, “but we had very little trouble financing the project. The people of Timmins have been very good to us.”

Holmes said there was a very good possibility that reserves will increase from 161,000 tons to 500,000 tons by the time the exploration program is completed.

“We can visualize operations a 300-to-500-ton-per-day plant on the site. We already have a hoist and a headframe.”

There is no Ontario Hydro line into the property yet, but Smith said negotiations are currently going on with the utility to provide hydro service to the site. Currently electricity is provided by diesel generators.

As for the new joint venture partnership, Homes said he was quite pleased.

“A 3-way joint venture like we had before was not advantageous,” he said. “That’s why we restructured and brought in a new joint venture partner. And if the project does get big, Noranda has the right to come back in any time during the next 10 years.”

Van Hees said the goal of the exploration program was to increase reserves by two to three times.

“Once you’re at a half-million tons, you can look at starting a 300-to-500-ton-per-day plant,” he said. “Most of the mines in the Porcupine historically operated at that level.”

As for the proven reserves already defined, Smith said the partnership fully intends to recover those reserves within the next two years. He said the proven reserves are readily accessible.

“There is a good amount of the infrastructure already in place,” said Holmes. “The shaft has been rehabilitated and the
drifts go right into the ore zone.”

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