ATLANTIC REPORT Teck enters Nova Scotia gold scene

Vancouver-based Teck Corp. has entered the Nova Scotia gold play by optioning 208 contiguous claims near the Beaver Dam gold district in Halifax Cty. from Dartmouth businessman Trenholme Lodge. The claims cover more than 8,000 acres and lie three miles west of Seabright Resources’ portal at Beaver Dam, from which commercial gold production is expected in May. Neighboring claims are held by Four Seasons Resources of Vancouver, also under option from Mr Lodge, and by Halifax lawyer Gerald McConnell, president of Halifax-based Novacan Mining Resources.

Teck is committed to spending $75,000 on the Lodge claims during 1987. The company’s North Bay field operations office will be starting line cutting immediately, with geophysics, till and soil geochemistry to follow as weather permits. Diamond drilling, if warranted, will take place in the summer.

The claims cover the faulted western extension of the Beaver Dam anticline, the major structure that hosts Seabright’s Beaver Dam deposit. A second fold structure, the 15 Mile Stream anticline, also cuts across the property.

Teck is the third major to become involved in the Nova Scotia gold scene. Inco Ltd. has been active in the province for more than a year and is now conducting an underground evaluation of the Cochrane Hill gold district, Guysborough Cty. Within the past month Falconbridge Ltd. has staked some large claim blocks, also in Guysborough Cty.

A large property in the Caribou gold district — the second largest gold producer in the province — has been acquired by Seabright Explorations, a subsidiary of Seabright Resources, from John A. Logan Enterprises of Upper Musquodoboit, N.S.

Logan Enterprises transferred to Seabright Explorations its mineral rights to 74 Halifax Cty. claims covering eight former gold production shafts which operated at various times in the late 1800s and first half of this century. Golden Caribou of Toronto had optioned the claims from Logan Enterprise s in 1983.

Golden Caribou dewatered and rehabilitated the Holman shaft to the 800-ft level and performed an underground evaluation of the mine’s potential. Work was discontinued when the $500,000 budget was exhausted.

More than 90,000 oz of gold was extracted from the area, mainly from the Holman and Lake Lode mines. Consolidated Mining and Smelting operated the Holman Mine until it closed at the end of the Second World War because of increasing costs and a reduction in grade to below the break-even level of 0.40 oz gold per ton. CMS was mining the 25-ft-wide F zone, which was mined down rake for 1,000 ft.

The Holman shaft is set up with a headframe, equipment and pumps.

The Lake Lode mine exploited a fissure vein that had a maximum thickness of 20 ft to its mined depth of about 1,000 ft. Although the zone at the 1,000-ft level was reportedly still auriferous, the mine closed early in the 1900s when high operating costs were coupled with a major fire that destroyed the mine’s surface structures.

Seabright has budgeted $700,000 for the first phase of a staged exploration program to systematically evaluate the entire district

Esso Minerals Canada closed its Halifax field office because of a Canada-wide reduction in staff. But Esso’s Atlantic exploration program will continue, directed from Toronto, and the move will not affect the extent of the company’s operations in Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Esso’s 1987 exploration expenditures in the three provinces will remain at about the same level as last year.

Atlantic exploration supervisor Dr Zia Hasan will move to Esso’s mining development group in Toronto. Gerry Harron will take charge of exploration in the Atlantic provinces as well as Quebec.

The company will be continuing work in Newfoundland, where it holds gold properties at Pollard’s Point, in the Gander Belt, Day D’Espoir and Topsail areas, and a base metal property in the Tally Pond area.

In the Maritimes, Esso has gold claims near Cheticamp, Cape Breton and in the Bathurst camp in New Brunswick.

The company’s Halifax office was opened in 1979.

The Chamber of Mineral Resources of Nova Scotia will hold its annual meeting on Feb 5 and 6 at the Lord Nelson Hotel in Halifax. There will be an opening reception on Thursday evening, Feb 5, with the annual general meeting on Friday morning, Feb 6, followed by a luncheon with a guest speaker. For Friday afternoon, the chamber is arranging an update on all gold exploration in Nova Scotia. Representatives from companies looking for gold in the province have been invited to speak on their current activities and plans for the coming field season. Craig Miller, N.S. Dept. of Mines gold project geologist, will give an overview of the distribution of gold mineralization in the province.

“This meeting is shaping up to be one of the most comprehensive surveys of current gold exploration and development activity in the province,” says Greg Isenor, chamber secretary.

For further information, contact Ms Lynn Oltmann at (902) 422- 1507.