EXPLORATION ’87 FALCO. COPPER

Control of Corporation Falconbridge Copper (cfc) changed hands in 1986 with the sale of 50% of its shares by Falconbridge Ltd. to Kerr Addison Mines. Kerr is enthusiastic to see cfc continue to operate autonomously and to build on its exploration strength. Consequently cfc will carry out an aggressive exploration program for polymetallic, volcanogenic, massive sulphide and gold deposits in 1987 with a surface exploration budget improved over previous years. A large portion of the budget is financed by flow-through shares.

Quebec is the mainstay of cfc operations and will continue to be central to the company’s exploration strategy. The exploration office in Chapais, headed by Marc Boisvert, is looking mainly at structural settings in volcano-sedimentary environments with potential for gold deposits. Activity is focussed near Chapais, in the hope of finding additional reserves that will rejuvinate the Opemiska copper-gold mining operations, and in the area of Lac Shortt to increase reserves near its gold mine that went into production in January, 1985. It is probable that cfc will go underground this year with a ramp at its Laura Lake property, near Chapais, to ascertain the continuity of gold-bearing vein/structures intersected by surface diamond drilling in 1986.

The exploration office at Lake Dufault, near Rouyn/Noranda, headed by Gerald Riverin (exploration manager for Quebec), will continue to pursue its next massive sulphide discovery. The Corbet mine at Lake Dufault was closed last September because of the depletion of its reserves. The rich copper-gold massive sulphide deposit at Ansil will continue under development through 1987 and should be producing before the end of 1988. Principals of volcanology, structure stratigraphy and hydrothermal systems augmented by detailed geology, geochemistry and borehole geophysics will be applied to deep drilling programs which have a good chance for another new discovery in the chain of successes enjoyed in this area over the past years.

Cfc and Syngold Exploration are in a joint venture on the Delbridge and Kerralda properties, near Lake Dufault, where cfc provides expertise and technical direction and where the junior partner provides funds to earn an interest. A major drill program is scheduled for 1987 to follow- up encouraging gold values intersected in a quartz vein by drilling late in 1986 and to test other gold and massive sulphide targets on this centrally located property in the Noranda camp.

The Winston Lake zinc-gold-copper massive sulphide deposit, near Schreiber, Ont., is proceeding towards production which should start by the end of 1987. The exploration crew from the Thunder Bay office, including Paul Severin, Frank Balint and Gary Wells, will be striving to repeat its success in the immediate area of Winston Lake and in other parts of northwestern Ontario. A major drilling program is expected to be under way in early 1987 in the Sturgeon Lake area of northwestern Ontario on a recently acquired block of claims thought to cover the westerly strike extension of volcanic rocks that host cfc’s now-closed Sturgeon Lake mine and Noranda’s Mattabi mine. Seadrift Exploration is providing the funding for work on this project to earn an interest in the property. A large property package accumulated 30 km east of Fort Frances will also be the focus of intense exploration activity for massive sulphide deposits.

In western Canada, Alex Davidson leads an experienced exploration team from an office in Delta, B.C. Exploration in British Columbia in 1987 will focus on the Adams-Barriere region, north of Kamloops; on the Britannia mine area, north of Vancouver; and on the Mt. Sicker area, near Duncan on Vancouver Island.

The property held under option from Rea Gold will continue to be the centre of activity in the Adams-Barriere area. Several lenses of high grade silver- zinc-lead-copper-gold mineralization discovered in 1986 will be more intensively drilled and will provide encouragement that a major deposit may yet be found in the area. Properties acquired by cfc covering the stratigraphy hosting the Rea deposits for more than 40 km of strike length will be subject to increasingly intensive exploration efforts.

Volcanic rocks in the Mt. Sicker and Britannia areas are being re-mapped in detail and re-interpreted, integrating “Archean” expertise in volcanology and hydrothermal systems and “Cordilleran” expertise in structure and tectonics to come up with exciting targets for massive sulphide- gold mineralization. Mapping, geochemistry, geophysics and diamond drilling will continue in these areas, both of which have a long history of production of base and precious metals and which promise to yield more.

In the western U.S., cfc’s wholly- owned subsidiary, Nevcan Exploration, and Kerr Addison’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Keradamex, will join forces in a joint venture to create a more balanced and cost-effective exploration unit based in Sparks, Nev. The main emphasis will be on the search for gold deposits with potential for low-cost, low-capitalization operations.