Soquem re-establishes presence in exploration

With an annual exploration budget of $4 million — $16 million committed for the next four years — the ground-breaking Quebec Crown corporation, Soquem, is bound to make its presence in the mining industry felt again.

When Soquem spun off its gold assets a year ago to form Cambior, it seemed to drop from public view. The Cambior issue’s huge success — the first attempt at privatization by the Quebec government — eclipsed further developments at the government-owned mineral exploration company.

The Soquem assets sold to Cambior, valued at $103 million, allowed Soquem to pay off its debts and left it with a 31% interest in Cambior. The assets included a 50% interest in the Doyon gold mine and the Niobec niobium mine as well as interest in 46 properties at various stages of exploration.

Now the company is ready to replenish its portfolio of properties.

“Our only wish is to be able to give birth to another Cambior in a shorter period,” Denis Simoneau, Soquem’s general manager for exploration, told The Northern Miner.

Since September 1986 the company has been involved in 32 different projects, four of them with partners.

Although it has a hefty exploration budget and a strong balance sheet, Soquem is working under some extraordinary constraints. For example, when it spun off Cambior, Soquem agreed to stay out of the area bounded roughly by Senneterre on the east and Ontario on the west, and by Val d’Or on the south and the Casa Berardi area to the north. Since the company has a mandate to work solely within the province of Quebec, leaving out that area means ignoring the province’s prime area for gold exploration.

The company’s government- imposed mandate also entails using half of its resources exploring for base metals and one-quarter exploring for ferroalloys and “high-tech” minerals. Only one-quarter is earmarked for precious metals exploration.

On the other hand, the company has a specific mandate not to be considered as a way to help out cases of financial hardship in mining camps. In other words, it won’t be straddled with the duty of bailing out failing ventures for the sake of some political purpose such as regional development or as a way to maintain employment.

The Chibougamau area, where the company spent about $1.5 million or 54% of its exploration budget in 1986-87, encompasses Soquem’s most promising prospect known as the Philbert project about 55 km southwest of the town.

Soquem operates the project with Mines Sullivan holding a 40% interest. Drilling has identified an 1,800-m long gold-bearing silicified zone. Further drilling is planned to follow up on some intersections of economic interest including 0.21 oz gold per ton over 8.7 ft and 0.19 oz over 7.2 ft.

Also in the Chibougamau area, about 45 km southwest of the town, Soquem and Sullivan have combined on the Fancamp project. Work centres on an east-west trending shear zone where visible gold has been found, although drilling has not come up with significant intersections. On a subsidiary zone, however, one hole cut about 16.5 ft grading 0.08 oz with some higher values including 0.48 oz over 5 ft found in surface sampling.

Other exploration activity is being conducted in the area east of Matagami, in the Grenville geological province east of Havre St.- Pierre, and in the Eastern townships.