SUDBURY STAR LINK
April 21, 2000 - last updated
NEWS
Region on the verge of claims rush
By Rob O?Flanagan/THE SUDBURY STAR
The director of a Vancouver mining exploration company predicts a staking and acquisition rush in the Sudbury region, as companies scramble to cash in on high platinum group metal (PGM) prices.
There are precious metals in the hills around Sudbury, said Doug Hickey of CanAlaska Ventures Ltd. His company and many others are aggressively looking for them in this area.
CanAlaska announced earlier this week that it has acquired five projects and some 1,000 claims covering 40,000 acres in the Sudbury Mining District. They are after PGMs exclusively, which have reached record highs on the international market.
?My prediction is that there will be a strong and on-going staking and acquisition rush around the discovery of PGMs in the Sudbury region,? said Hickey. ?CanAlaska has picked up some ground in the area, and there are a number of other companies ... that are making some moves in the area right now.?
Companies like CanAlaska move into a region and conduct extensive exploration work. Once deposits are identified, the companies finds partners to extract and refine the metals.
CanAlaska, which has spent $400,000 on claims in the Sudbury area, was one of the exploration companies that staked claims in Voisey?s Bay, spending $3 million on a partnership with Falconbridge before the property was acquired by Inco.
Unlike other precious metals, Hickey said the price of platinum and palladium has consistently been on the rise. Palladium is currently selling at just under $600 per ounce, platinum just under $500 per ounce and rhodium at $1,750 per ounce.
Pacific Northwest Capital Corporation?s (PFN ) River Valley Project ? located about 26 km north of Warren ? is thought to be one of the richest PGM deposits in the area. CanAlaska owns seven per cent of PFN, and has a major stake in River Valley.
thesudburystar.com |
