Hottest base metal (January 01, 1990)

It’s being called the hottest base metals discovery since Kidd Creek and the Louvicourt Twp., Que., find of joint partners Aur Resources (TSE) and Societe Miniere Louvem (TSE) brought a sluggish June mining market to life.

When word of the massive base metal orebody reached the street (N.M., June 19/89), the value of Aur and Louvem shares took off. Aur, trading at $5 before the discovery, jumped quickly and now rests around $14. Even more dramatic was Louvem’s performance, which leapt from 52 cents per share to nearly $10.

The play soon attracted the interest of the majors and in July Teck Corp. (TSE) and Cominco Ltd. (TSE) bought a 19% position in Aur.

The discovery also prompted The Northern Miner to name Aur President Jim Gill as its Mining Man of the Year for 1989.

The discovery is situated about 2,000 ft east of the abandoned Louvem copper-zinc mine which produced more than two million tons of ore in the 1970s. But the new discovery is much deeper than the old Louvem workings ever reached, with the orebody lying between 1,500 and 2,000 ft depths.

A good orebody these days attracts lawsuits like a prospector attracts blackflies and the Louvicourt find is no exception. Charging that Louvem defaulted on an earlier $40,000 exploration expense, Aur slapped its partner with an $81-million breach of contract suit. If successful, the suit would raise Aur’s stake in the project to 75%. Louvem responded with an $83-million countersuit, alleging that Aur withheld information that Louvem needed to accurately assess the value of the Louvicourt find.

The courtroom entanglements threaten to delay development of the project where initial estimates put the reserve at 36 million tons of 3.11% copper, 1.34% zinc, 0.55 oz silver per ton and 0.025 oz gold. The deposit remains open at depth and Aur is considering sinking a 4,500-ft hole in the new year.

The Louvicourt property, just a few miles down the road from Val d’Or, rekindled interest in one of the country’s most extensively explored gold camps. Many companies began to take another look at dormant gold claims hoping to discover their base metal potential.