Andy, Toronto Star article is still there, was just a bad link. Here is correct link:
(and the article, just in case the link doesn't work)
thestar.com
Merry
Northern prospectors take a shine to platinum
By Gregory Reynolds
Special to The Star
Santa honey
One little thing I really need
The deed
to a platinum mine
Santa Baby
So hurry down the chimney tonight
- Eartha Kitt, 1953
SUDBURY - Platinum does not glitter like gold. But Eartha Kitt wished right: The gray metal's worth a lot more.
Platinum now goes for more than $700 (Canadian) an ounce, compared with just $427.50 for gold - which platinum once tracked - at Friday's close.
The scarcity of platinum, combined with its usefulness and the depressed price of gold, has created an unexpected platinum rush in Northern Ontario.
In the last year, more than a dozen junior mining companies, most listed on the new Canadian Venture Exchange in Vancouver, snapped up Platinum Group Element prospects.
A prospect is the staking of a claim on land - usually crown land - that gives prospectors the exclusive right to look for valuable minerals on it, and the right to mine what is found.
The search for platinum has created a roaring business for mining-supply companies, says Sudbury district resident geologist Mike Cosec of the Ontario Geological Survey.
The claim-staking and land-acquisition rush has focused on areas to the east and west of Sudbury. He estimates 6,000 claim units, each covering 40 acres, have been staked in a search for platinum and another precious metal, palladium.
At the root of the boom is a decision by the Russians in 1999 to withhold these metals from the world market, and to increase home consumption, which led to much higher world prices.
Platinum is best-known for its uses in jewellery, but the real demand lies in the metal's importance in the manufacture of such things as catalytic converters in vehicles and in the aerospace industry.
Palladium, with a price hovering around $1,000, is also used in catalytic converters.
Right now, Canada has only one platinum mine, located near Thunder Bay.
For many years, it was believed that the best of the Northern Ontario mineral crop had been picked by Inco Ltd. and Falconbridge Ltd., the two international nickel-mining giants that dominate the region.
But other names, big and small, have renewed interest in the region, and they are looking for more exotic minerals than copper and nickel.
The Star reported last month that diamond giant De Beers is poised to begin building Ontario's first diamond mine in the James Bay lowlands.
In the case of platinum, Cosec says, former Timmins geologist Lorne Luhta did ``some research, some legwork, and developed a theory'' that led him in 1998 to take a second look at some old trenches in the River Valley area near Field about 100 km northeast of Sudbury.
Mustang Minerals Corp. acquired the property and came up with some good results in a diamond-drill program.
``Now juniors are looking at properties Inco and Falconbridge had given up on,'' he said.
Another junior, Pacific North West Capital Corp., also has a find in the River Valley area.
In addition to the new information and new theories that are helping to create the rush, new areas are coming open after being withheld from staking for more than 20 years because of legal battles.
Bob Komarechka, president of the Sudbury Prospectors and Developers Association, says many of his 121 members are working again as result of the rush that began with the announcements by Mustang and Pacific North West Capital.
``For the past eight months, prospecting has been active, with our members staking and acquiring ground and making deals.
``Claim staking is now tapering off and companies are getting into the evaluation of properties,'' he says.
All this is good news for his members, because mineral exploration has been quiet for several years.
Komarechka says ``a lot of money has been spent and a lot more will be spent.
``One good thing is that Mustang and PFN have access to the kind of funds required to determine whether they have mines,'' he adds.
Mustang also has a find in the East Bull Lake area west of Sudbury and a number of juniors have surrounded the area.
Although Mustang has 100 per cent of the minerals rights in the East Bull Lake area, the company has a $6.2 million joint-venture deal with Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. of South Africa, the world's second-largest producer and refiner of platinum group metals, in the River Valley area.
Pacific North West Capital has a deal with Anglo American Platinum Corp. Ltd., also of South Africa, and the world's largest platinum producer.
Spending $4 million in exploration could give Anglo American a 50 per cent interest in the project, and if it develops into a mine, the company could end up with 65 per cent.
Tim Hudak, minister of northern development and mines, said in April that an Ontario Geological Survey sediment sampling program in the River Valley area has revealed new ways to help mineral explorers in their searches.
A report that he released at the time helped keep the staking rush going. The minister said the survey work indicated that there are new, unexplored potential deposits of platinum. |
