CIM District Six meeting reviewed B.C. gold projects

If attendance at cim’s District Six 11th annual meeting here Oct 28-31 is a barometer that will gauge exploration in British Columbia and the Yukon, then sagging stock exchange markets will not pressure declines in activities in the coming year. The popular west coast event attracted more than 500 delegates from Keno Hill to Kelowna and from Quintette to Quesnel.

The convention theme, Mining in Transition — Leading the Way, featured in a plenary session Brian Parrott (Mining Association of B.C.), Walter Curlook (Mining Association of Canada) and John Amatt (president, One Step Beyond and member of the Canadian Mount Everest Expedition who gave an uplifting and inspiring presentation on challenges in climbing and attempted to show how conquests to cross crevasses and insurmountable obstacles to reach the highest point on the earth have parallels in everyday life).

The geology/exploration session featured reviews of the more advanced exploration gold projects in B.C.

Updates were provided on Golden Bear at Muddy Lake where Chevron Minerals and North American Metals are preparing for production in 1989-90; Stonehouse along the Iskut River where Skyline Resources will be putting its Reg deposit into production in the first quarter of 1988; Cinola on Graham Island where City Resources Canada is doing everything possible to prove the viability of this large-tonnage, low grade deposit; Sulphurets camp along the Iskut River where Newhawk Gold Mines and others are involved; and the Lara, near Chemanus on Vancouver Island where Abermin Resources announced an underground exploration program to commence in early 1988 to take a better look at its poly-metallic deposit.

Diverse start-up reviews were given on Gibraltar, B.C.; Red Dog, Alaska; Winston Lake and Emerald Lake, Ont.; and Barrick Mercur Gold Mines, Utah. Mineral economics session

The mineral economics session brought together five excellent papers on Gold Bullion Financing and Production Forecasting by James McKinnon and Duane Anderson, A. J. Reed and R. L. Faulkner. Dennis Milburn of nim gave an excellent review on Tax Reform and Flow-through Financing. Hopefully, copies of Milburn’s paper will pass over the desks of Ottawa politicians.

Unless certain modifications in tax reform are enacted, flow- through funding of Canadian exploration will lose its attraction as an investment vehicle.

The contents of the entire meeting are available in preprint form in one loose-leaf book from the cim in Montreal. The package of papers is good value for the money and should be read by all mineral explorers and miners who expect to keep their day jobs and be in the business for years to come.