Dying exploration industry prompts campaign — Kidd staff

Deeply concerned about their chances of finding another substantial orebody to replace reserves at the aging Kidd Creek copper-zinc-silver mine, geologists at Falconbridge’s Timmins exploration office have thrown their weight behind the Save Our North campaign.

A lobby group launched in Timmins, Ont., Save Our North is asking the provincial government to eliminate roadblocks to exploration and to make changes to attract investment to Ontario. Otherwise, organizers say, all the resource-based communities in the north will go the way of Elliot Lake, Ont., the once-prosperous uranium mining town.

Faced with dwindling reserves at the 25-year-old Kidd Creek and a hungry smelter to feed, Falconbridge recognizes the dangers of a dying exploration industry. Since 1988, exploration spending in Ontario has dropped from almost half a billion dollars per year, to just over $100 million in 1991. Junior companies, beaten by a poor investment climate and restricted land access, have dropped out of the picture almost completely.

“We can’t do it all by ourselves,” says Dennis Prince, manager of Falconbridge’s Timmins office. “There’s alot of drilling involved and a lot of structural interpretation.”

Current reserves at Kidd Creek, Timmin’s largest employer, are expected to be mined out within the next 10-15 years. This year, Falconbridge will spend about $5.5 million combing the Timmins camp for similar orebodies, as it has been doing since 1986.

Prince says his team is looking for a deposit with reserves of at least 20 million tons.

But Falconbridge faces formidable challenges.

The lack of outcrop in the area makes explorationists almost totally dependent on geophysics and drilling.

To add to the problem, satellites of Kidd Creek are apt to dip steeply like the motherlode itself, reducing the chances of a direct intersection. Even if the company found something, it would take about nine years to get it into production under current regulations.

So it’s with a sense of urgency and personal foreboding that Princeand fellow geologist Ken Watson have joined the campaign to save Timmins and other resource-based economies from extinction.

Led by Cyprus Canada geologist Steve Parry, they have fielded phone calls, sold thousands of campaign buttons, and raised money to spread the word. “First you do a little government lobbying, then you go out and drill a hole,” says Watson, reflecting on his new responsibilities as an exploration geologist.