Ontario’s diamond potential often dismissed

That it took so many years to locate diamond sources in Ontario is a sorry comment on much of Canada’s mining exploration capabilities.

For 20 or more seasons, in my younger days, I prospected for diamonds in the province, and the interest and support I received from exploration managers was pathetic. For the most part, my proposals were met with skepticism, and it was even implied that I seek psychiatric help if I continued to believe it was worth exploring for diamonds in Ontario.

Never mind that drift diamonds had been found in Ontario since the 1900s, that kimberlites were known from the 1930s, and that all the indicators (ilmenite, chrome diopside, pyrope garnet) and magnetic anomalies were there.

Never mind that Dr. Satterly of the Ontario Department of Mines had published a report urging Canadian firms to look for the diamonds in Ontario, that Chris Gunn’s University of Western Ontario thesis had identified several Ontario diamond sources, and that Dr. Owen of the University of Toronto’s Geology Department supported the notion that diamond sources exist in the province.

In spite of all this, most of the exploration managers I encountered on Bay Street in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s were skeptical at best.

In the end, I came to the sad conclusion that the success of the average Canadian exploration group has less to do with competence and good management than with the sheer number of mineral sources in the country, and that the Canadian mining industry often benefits not so much from skill and intelligence as from plain dumb luck.

I won’t comment on the sleaze element in the business except to say that I wish I had a new BMW for every firm that said it wasn’t interested in my exploration proposals but then went in and staked the area of interest.

Mind you, I would be being unfair if I did not mention that I received positive support from a few individuals and orgainizatoins, namely Conwest, Hard Metals, Bob Geissler, Duncan Derry and Gus Wahl. I wish there had been more like them.

Frederic Lister

Nauheim, Germany