Letters to the Editor Geco discovery clarification

As resident geologist for the Ontario Department of Mines at the time of the discovery, I was personally acquainted with the prospectors involved and with Bill Hargraft, who brought the deposit to the attention of the General Engineering Company. I also mapped the Manitouwadge area for the department in the period 1954- 1956. For these reasons, I am particularly interested in the early history of the discovery.

It is my recollection that the discovery drillhole was collared east of Fox Creek, not west of “Lost Creek” as stated by Mr Hunter. I know of no “Lost Creek” in the area. The hole was drilled to test a narrow zone of muscovite-quartz schist, well mineralized with chalcopyrite, exposed along the north side of a high hill rising above the creek bed. The hole, extended beyond its initially intended limit, intersected the massive sulphide portion of the orebody on which the mine was later developed. Could the drillhole referred to by Mr Hunter be the one that later located the westernmost displaced segment of the orebody west of the post-ore north-south Fox Creek fault?

In his article, Mr Hunter stated that, on intersecting rich mineralization in the drillhole, Moe Moleski travelled by canoe to Geraldton to advise Bill Hargraft. While Moe may have travelled to Geraldton, the nature of the topography is such that he certainly did not do so by canoe. Geraldton is 65 miles northwest of Manitouwadge, and all the navigable rivers between the two centres flow from north to south or from northeast to southwest, as a glance at a map of the region will indicate. It is most likely Moe paddled his canoe south along Fox Creek to Manitouwadge Lake and a Lands and Forests campsite, and from there travelled by float-equipped aircraft to Geraldton.

Moe Moleski’s part in the discovery of the Geco orebody requires clarification. E.G. Pye, retired director Ontario Geological Survey Etobicoke, Ont.

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