Cominco to investigate wollastonite property

Minerals play a key role in advanced industrial materials such as polymer-based composites and advanced ceramics. And Cominco Ltd. is planning to capitalize on the potential for mining these minerals.

It has agreed to fund all the work — probably costing about $400,000 — necessary to make a production decision on a promising wollastonite property in Marmora Twp., 100 km northwest of Kingston, Ont.

In exchange for the expenditures, Cominco will earn a 51% interest from Black Hawk Mining Inc., a Toronto-listed junior which owns the property.

The mineral, a calcium silicate, formed by the metasomatism of calcarious sediments located adjacent to an intrusive granite, is valued by plastic and resin manufacturers particularly for its needle- like crystals. Ceramics manufacturers, who use wollastonite to put a glaze on ceramic products, value it for its brightness and low melting temperature.

A wide rock unit consisting of up to 40% wollastonite was recognized by a local prospector in a road cut 5 km east of the town of Maramora. He approached Robert Gannicott, president of a private company called Platinova. This company bought the property from private owners last year before amalgamating with Black Hawk. Black Hawk, in turn, agreed to give the prospector a 1.5% net smelter royalty did some sampling and flotation studies and then optioned the ground to Cominco.

The rock unit, dipping 50 degrees 56 degrees, has been traced on surface for a continuous strike length of 1,200m, according to Alistair MacKinnon, a Tweed, Ont.-based geologist for the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy in Toronto recently, Mr MacKinnon said the deposit contains an estimated two million tons averaging about 40% wollastonite.

“Indications are that the deposit is quite variable in width, ranging from 1m to 100m,” he said.

“Cominco and Black Hawk will be doing preliminary drilling to obtain indicated reserves of one million tons,” Mr Gannicott told The Northern Miner. “But the most important part of our work is flotation test work to see what quality of product we can produce. Then we’ll take that information to potential customers, come back and do more drilling to prove ore reserves before making a production decision.” The whole process could take two years.

Currently there are no wollastonite producers in Canada. World markets are dominated by only two producers: one in upper New York state; the other in Finland.

Cominco will likely try to exploit the ceramics market since it has been dropped by the U.S. producer.

Black Hawk has 4,319,009 shares outstanding, trading on the tse at about $1.50.