EDITORIAL PAGE (September 02, 1991)

There are few rays of sunshine for junior gold companies these days. The precious metal has lost a great deal of its lustre over the past decade.

The gold price has been on a downtrend since the American people rejected Jimmy Carter in favor of Ronald Reagan as president.

Despite that gloomy performance, the spirit of optimism is still alive among gold explorationists, a spirit that recognizes opportunity where others see adversity. In mineral exploration, it is almost a prerequisite. “We feel there are excellent opportunities at this time to acquire small to intermediate gold reserves,” says John Devitt, president of Minerex Resources.

“Larger companies have tended to overlook and smaller companies have lacked adequate funding to develop them.”

That might be seen simply as wishful thinking were it not from Minerex’s performance. It is operator and half owner of a small gold mine in Nevada that has performed better than anticipated since startup in 1988 allowing the company to pay off its debt. Now it is looking for other

ventures.

Devitt was speaking at the annual meeting of shareholders and his comments were aimed, no doubt, at raising the spirits of the company’s owners. Even so, the philosophy is one that, of necessity, is widely adhered to among the fraternity of junior mining companies.

There’s no denying the hardships being faced today in the junior mining sector, but there are opportunities, too. They’re just a little tougher to find than they were a few years ago.

If it weren’t for the terrible difficulties being suffered by mining communities in Ontario’s north, one could only call the government’s latest offer of help for this neglected part of the province an insult.

Ontario’s newest mines minister, Shelley Martel, has recently sweetened the Ontario Mineral Incentive Program, a program that makes grants available to prospectors for part of their expenses.

She has not made any more money available through the program, or increased the maximum amount that any individual prospector may receive. She has merely made the grants available for up to 50% of eligible expenditures for all areas instead of some, like Elliot Lake, that are suffering particularly tough economic times.

The change comes after pleading from those areas where grants had been limited to 30% — places like

Timmins, Wawa and Ear Falls.

They need every bit of help they can get and are not likely to criticize whoever offers it.

And that’s how this government wants it. Premier Bob Rae and his party are determined to reduce all incentives for investment in the province thereby establishing itself and the public funds it controls as the pre-eminent source of funding for communities in the north.

This government is really not interested whether prospectors are able to raise money on the concept that there is mineral wealth in Ontario that can be exploited profitably. It wants prospectors to come cap in hand to receive a grant from the public purse.

When a government offers money, it is difficult to turn down. But when a government offers 10 cents after taking a dollar, it is hard to believe the government is thinking of anyone’s best interests but its own.