EDITORIAL PAGE — 1994 retrospective

The stars must have been aligned in strange configurations for much of 1994 — how else to explain the unusual events that took place in the mining industry.

Who would have predicted, for example, that former Corona president Peter Steen would, for a time at least, replace Peter Allen as president of Lac Minerals? And who, in the first place, could have imagined that Royal Oak Mines would launch its David-versus-Goliath takeover bid for Lac? The shock was obviously too much for Lac, which was not able to muster any meaningful defence other than to polish up the merchandise and hold out for the highest bidder.

The takeover battle made for a lively summer, and vacation plans went out the window as an army of brokers, bankers and lawyers was called into action. When the dust settled, the spoils went to rival bidder American Barrick Resources, now one of the largest gold companies in the world. But Royal Oak’s Peggy Witte enhanced her profile within the industry, and even picked up a consolation prize of sorts — Chatelaine’s “Woman of the Year” award, which she can now add to the “Man of the Year” award we gave her in 1991. North American mining companies continued to be lured offshore by a smorgasbord of foreign opportunities. West Africa, Indonesia and Argentina topped the year’s “what’s-hot” list, while Venezuela fell from grace into the “what’s-not” category.

So what did Canada do in the face of all this increased competition? Not a heck of a lot (except, perhaps, Quebec).

If there were a booby prize, it would go to the British Columbia government for the investment chill generated by its decision to lock up a huge copper deposit as part of a park.

Diamonds lost some sparkle in 1994, mostly as a result of the disappointing sampling results from the Tli Kwi Cho kimberlite pipe at Lac de Gras, N.W.T. But this did not appear to satisfy the “no-growth” green groups who are now lining up for government money to stall the one remaining advanced diamond project in Canada’s North. Maybe that explains why all those Canadian geologists are heading off to Africa to look for the next diamond find. Some rain fell on Aur Resources’ parade, as reserves were found to be about 40% less than expected at the Louvicourt copper-zinc-silver-gold deposit in Quebec. On a brighter note, the mine was up and running in time to benefit from the current upswing in copper prices.

Robert Friedland was back in the news, and it had nothing to do with any of the globe-trotting financier’s foreign ventures (some of which have not fared all that well). Instead, he will be working to maximize the value of a recent nickel-copper-cobalt discovery that resulted, ironically, from a low-budget, low-priority diamond exploration program in Labrador.

But the strangest event of the year was the roller-coaster ride of International Platinum, one of the most active issues on the blue-chip Toronto Stock Exchange a few months ago. The flurry of trading was sparked by attention-grabbing gold, silver, platinum and palladium values from a mysterious Arizona property.

However, none of these results could be corroborated by certified laboratories using conventional assaying techniques. The Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources, for example, found less than trace gold values and no evidence of any platinum group metals. The TSE finally halted trading in the company’s shares after another independent evaluation showed nil or trace precious metal values.