1,000 reopened claims prompt staking rush near Cobalt, Ont.

The rush is on as mining majors battle small-time prospectors for control of more than 1,000 reopened claims in the Cobalt area of northern Ontario. Since 7 a.m., April 3, official opening time, stakers have been racing to lay claim to the choicest properties in the 1,800-sq.-km area. “There were helicopters all over the place” on opening day, notes Larder Lake mining recorder Mike Weirmeir. At one point, “six of them were hovering over the same spot.”

The reopened zone constitutes a narrow band of land surrounding the 10,000-sq.-km Teme-Augama Anishnabai land claim. A decision to reopen the narrow band was made when the Ontario government announced that a 16-year-old native land caution protecting the zone would be lifted (T.N.M., Feb. 5/90).

The hottest claims appear to be centred around numerous gold- bearing quartz veins in the Shining Tree area.”About 90% of business is coming from that area,” says Weirmeir. In 1939, the Ronda mine produced 2,727 oz. of gold and 4,380 oz. of silver from Shining Tree’s gold-rich greenstones.

Another small pocket of claims has opened in Tudhope Twp., adjacent to Bryce Twp., where a northeast-trending fault system hosts a number of gold showings. This area was recommended as an exploration target by Cobalt resident geologist Leo Owsiacki in his 1988 Report of Activities. In the 1930s, Noranda (TSE) extracted 22 tons of ore grading 1.2 oz. gold per ton and 22 oz. silver from a gold prospect along the fault.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if 1,000 mining claims” are registered by the end of the month, says Weirmeir. After “keying in on known showings” in the first few days of the rush, Weirmeir expects prospectors will move to larger, less historically known areas. But not everyone is excited by the prospect of reopened claims in the Cobalt area.

Referring to the area as “moose pasture,” Joseph DeFelice, president of Tyranex Gold (COATS), believes companies will have trouble raising capital for exploration on the claims.

As for the highly prospective Shining Tree area, where the staking has been most intense, DeFelice thinks gold mineralization is too patchy to be considered economic. “You’ve got your left foot in the greenstones and your right foot in the granites, and there’s nothing in the granites,” he told the Northern Miner. DeFelice has worked several claims in the area, particularly around the Tyranite mine, a former gold producer.

And for the Teme-Augama Anishnabai Indians, the lifting of the land caution represents yet another threat looming on the borders of to their 112-year-old land claim lying just inside the boundary of the reopened area. Having recently lost a court battle with the Ontario Court of Appeal over recognition of the 10,000-sq.-km claim, the Indian band will appeal the decision in the Supreme Court of Canada some time in October.

The Ontario government “has to come to terms with aboriginal rights,” says Verna Friday, board member for the Canadian Alliance in Solidarity with Native People and member of the band. “I feel very positive from a legal point of view” that the Teme-Augama Anishnabai will win in the Supreme Court.

But if the Indians lose their fight, the huge land claim will become fair game for prospectors wishing to exploit the region’s mineral potential.