Voisey Bay provides spark to CIM conference in Halifax

Numerous known copper-nickel sulphide occurrences and favorable rock units in Labrador have yet to be prospected or staked,

according to a leading authority on the region’s geology.

Derek Wilton, assistant director of the Centre for Earth

Resources Research (CERR) at Memorial University of Newfoundland, delivered his encouraging message to a room packed with 300

geologists and mining professionals in this Maritime city. They were among the 1,200 members of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) who assembled last week for the association’s 97th annual general meeting.

In what might be described as a “travelogue” of Labrador’s

geological potential, Wilton summarized the results of recent mapping by the Newfoundland Department of Natural Resources, the Geological Survey of Canada and CERR. Among the more significant mineral occurrences to which he referred were the Treasure

Island, Baikie and Hopedale showings.

“The Voisey Bay deposit seems to be the result of crustallitic contamination of a troctolitic intrusion,” Wilton explained, adding that “the Nain Province has tremendous potential to host, amongst many things, economically significant concentrations of orthomagmatic nickel sulphides.” Richard Garnett, a director of Diamond Fields Resources (TSE), outlined the history of the

Voisey Bay discovery and discussed the likely implications of its development.

“We’re just now forming our ideas and piecing together a

prefeasibility study that will define the scope of future studies on a fully integrated milling and metallurgical facility (to be located in either Voisey Bay, Nain or on the island of

Newfoundland),” Garnett said. “We don’t simply want to export concentrates.” Meanwhile, the Newfoundland and federal

governments continue to negotiate a native land claim settlement with the Labrador Innuit Association. The negotiations have been ongoing since 1990 and now involve 4-day meetings every month.

Negotiations with the other native group with claims in the area, the Innu, are expected to resume this month now that a provincial court has been re-established in Davis Inlet, south of Voisey Bay.

The consensus, expressed among delegates, is that the Voisey Bay discovery has acted as a catalyst for resolution of the land claim dispute. And once an agreement is in place, it is expected that more ground will become open for staking.

“Our attitude is that we are the third party in this

[discussion],” Garnett said. “It’s up to the two governments and the two native groups to reach an agreement; we will pay taxes to whomever the landlord is.” Under recent changes to Newfoundland’s Mining and Mineral Rights Tax Act, provincial corporate taxes paid are now creditable against mining taxes payable for the first 10 years that a new mine is in operation. These changes, first proposed prior to the Voisey Bay discovery made last

November, should attract investment to the region.

In an opening speech, Anne McLellan, minister of Natural

Resources Canada, said the federal government is committed to partnership and co-operation with the provinces, the territories, industry, and aboriginal and environmental groups. As an example of this co-operation, she cited the Whitehorse Mining Initiative, signed last year.

“We are working to harmonize federal and provincial environmental approval processes through the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment,” she said.

However, the minister declined to speculate on the nature of the environmental approval process for Canada’s first diamond mine, at Lac de Gras in the Northwest Territories. “The panel

[responsible for determining the process] is in place and they’re doing their work,” McLellan told The Northern Miner.

Atlantic Canada’s three ministers of natural resources — Rex Gibbons of Newfoundland, Donald Downe of Nova Scotia, and Laureen Jarrett of New Brunswick — officially opened the conference’s trade show, which attracted 125 companies.

With 12,400 members, the CIM is growing, said President William Almdal. By comparison, the Society of Mining Engineers (in the U.S.) lost 5% of its membership in 1994.

The CIM will celebrate its 100th Anniversary in Montreal in 1998.