New ‘gold rush' focuses on rare metal finds in Northwest
by Jim Mosher
Kenora Enterprise
June 27, 1999
There's a quiet revolution going on in northwestern Ontario - and its one led, perhaps surprisingly, by a respected group of government-paid geologists with the Ontario Geological Survey and The Open University in the United Kingdom.
People like OGS geologist Dr. Fred Breaks have been breaking new ground in a vast area of the Precambrian Canadian Shield north of Kenora, paving the way for intensive mining exploration and hopes of a revitalized mining industry. He's been joined by scientists from the United Kingdom.
While the area has been traditionally home to gold mines, such as the strike-bound mine at Balmertown near Red Lake, the rage in our high-tech world may be rare metals.
Its a mini-gold rush with a big difference. With the continuing decline in the value of gold - and its use as the world money standard - rare metals are currently moving into the lead. Rare metals aren't ‘sexy', like gold. But there use in a variety of high-tech applications make them a coveted
commodity, only mined at a handful of sites around the globe.
At Separation Rapids, geologist Breaks discovered in 1996 what's become known as the Big Whopper, a world-class find of lithium-containing petalite. The Whopper is also home to other rare metals, among them tantalum, cesium and rubidium, metals that have high tech applications in aerospace, computers and glassware.
Abutting the Whopper is what's called the Big Mack. It also contains rare metals, though not likely in the quantity of Separation Rapids. But Emerald Resources, the private company working the Big Mack, is eying the potential of marketing dimension stone there, while conducting exploration drilling to determine the nature of the rare metal content of their claims.
The latest entry in the rare metal mining stable in the Northwest is Houston Lake Mining. And the indefatigable Dr. Breaks was in on this discovery, as well. Houston owns the option on a 632-acre property at Pakeagama Lake. This property has similar mineral profiles as those at Separation Lake, but its distinct in its potential for significant quantities of cesium and tantalum. The discovery of the mineral pollucite could suggest a similar geology as is found at the Tanco Mine at Bernic Lake in nearby Manitoba.
Michael Carpe is a financial advisor and (is responsible for investor relations) for Houston Lake Mining. He used to work with Avalon Ventures, but parted company with the junior mining exploration company in February. Carpe credits OGS's Breaks with breaking the ground in the Northwest. A partner in Toronto-based Blackwell Investor Relations, Carpe recalls meeting the irrepressible Breaks in the fall of 1997, during a visit to Avalon's Whopper. "The excitement comes right out of him," Carpe said of Breaks. "When I came back from Separation Rapids on that cold October day, he was there in the boat, wearing short sleeves with a vest. I said to the guys back here in Toronto that you have to meet this person - what a different kettle of fish he is. He gets his jollies and his excitement from discovering things."
Breaks stopped in Kenora Sat., June 5 (1999), before making a second trip toPakeagama, 170 kilometres north of Red Lake. He and a crew of geologists conducted initial sampling work there last June. This time they will be expanding their work. Last summer's work demonstrated that the Pakeagama pegmatite could be home to mineable quantities of cesium and tantalum. In the mining business, though, the key is exhaustive analysis, the slow and steady accumulation of data. "Its going to require a full program to find out what's really there," Breaks said during a wide ranging interview.
About five years ago, Breaks and his colleagues at the OGS decided to concentrate their efforts on the rare metals potential of Northern Ontario. "Nobody has ever evaluated these rare metal occurrences properly," said Breaks. The government geologists knew that rare metals were coming into their own - and worldwide supplies are dwindling. Cesium is among the rarest of rare metals - and Breaks's preliminary work at Pakeagama Lake suggest cesium is present in the pegmatite, perhaps in quantity.
Breaks, who's been in the field for about 20 years after earning a doctorate at Carleton University, likes nothing better than to go where no one has gone before. He credits Dr. Denver stone with actually discovering the Pakeagama lake pegmatite. Stone conducted a wide-scale reconnaissance mapping of the region in 1993, subsequently highlighting Pakeagama and nearby Favourable lakes as potentially fruitful places for further study.
"When I went in there (last June), I found it was a huge system, said Breaks. "Its going to take some in-depth investigation. We just don't know what happens at depth." Breaks says broad swaths of the Pakeagama pegmatite have to be stripped and cleaned of contaminants. That's part of the current field work agenda. "The mineralogy is fascinating," says Breaks of Pakeagama, adding that the economics are equally important. "These are metals that are just coming into their own."
Tantalum, a key component in electrical capacitors, is used in everything from computers to cellular telephones to video recorders. The demand for this one rare metal has increased by about 10 per cent in each of the last five years. Cesium is used in drilling mud. It fetches about $6,000 U.S. a barrel.
International collaboration
Breaks is back at Pakeagama Lake this month. He's joined by Andy Tindle, of The Open University, at Milton Keynes, in the United Kingdom. Tindle is returning to Pakeagama with graduate student Steve Smith, also from the U.K. university. The field team will also include Roddy Ornella, an undergraduate at Laurentian University in Sudbury. It's the same field team that visited Pakeagama Lake last year. The team collected grab samples last June. Analysis of those samples, including more than 1,200 electron microprobe analyses by Tindle at The Open university, showed that more field work is needed.
"Its going to require a full program to find out what's really there," says Breaks. Some of the additional work will be conducted by the field team. But the work to assess the economics of the Pakeagama Lake pegmatite will have to be conducted by the private sector. That's where Houston Lake Mining comes in.
"The Pakeagama Lake pegmatite represents an intriguing new rare-metal exploration target," says Breaks, who cites its significant size, classification type and evolved mineralogy. The find is highlighted by the rare cesium-rich mineral pollucite and tantalum-rich mineral wodginite. "The discovery opens up an entirely new zone, at least 149 kilometres in strike length, that has never been adequately evaluated for rare-metal deposits," says Breaks.
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