Search for base metal deposits in Canada can’t be ignored

D. A. Cranstone, with the ministry’s mineral policy sector, told a Toronto forum on base metal exploration that mine site investments in Canadian base metal production is on the verge of being exceeded by similar investments in gold production.

The last time a similar event took place was probably in the 1930s, he told delegates to the forum organized by the Geological Survey of Canada in co-operation with the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.

Addressing concerns over dwindling copper, lead and zinc reserves, Cranstone said production of these metals cannot be maintained at current levels beyond the mid-1990s unless major new discoveries are made soon. A fourth base metal, nickel, has an appreciable known resource inventory and is not in the same predicament.

To maintain copper output from Canadian mines at existing levels beyond the early 1990s, about one million tonnes copper (contained in ore) would have to be discovered on average each year beginning now, he said. World market

For Canada to maintain its share of the world copper market which is growing at an annual rate of 1.5%, the nation’s production would have to grow proportionately; an average 1.3 million tonnes copper per year would have to be found.

A similar discovery rate was achieved in the 1956-75 period, Cranstone said, when most of the country’s known porphyry deposits were discovered. Between 1975 and 1987, he said, the average discovery rate was less than 0.2 million tonnes copper per year.

Whereas an estimated $160 million was spent on exploration for base metals in Canada in 1987, Cranstone said about $500 million will have to be spent this year if Canada is to maintain its reserve position.

So strong has the move been to gold exploration this decade that today nine of 10 discoveries promising enough to lead to mine development are gold deposits; 10 years ago, one in 10 was a gold deposit.

Ironically, although base metal operations were reduced between 1982 and 1986, Canadian production levels for lead and zinc in 1987 were the highest ever, copper output was the highest since 1974 and nickel output the highest since 1977.

And, the value in 1987 of the production of the four base metals mentioned above totalled about 2.3 times the value of the gold produced that year in Canada.

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