MINING MARKETS & INVESTMENT NEWS — Former New Senator seeks ‘prairie gold’

I am seeking assistance in locating a very small mining company that operated in Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Alberta in the mid-to-late 1960s. My father passed away in 1968, but just prior to his death he decided to venture into the stock market. His first and only venture resulted in the purchase of a mere 100 shares of a firm called New Senator Rouyn. I only recently located this share certificate, issued by a broker named Doherty, Roadhouse and McCuaig, a firm I have been unable to locate.

Ernie Comerford

Calgary, Alta.

Your old certificate still has some value, as New Senator Rouyn has continued under the name NSR Resources (nsr-t). New Senator Rouyn, which was formed in 1937, was a modest gold producer from 1940 to 1955. Estimates from the period show production of around 240,000 oz. from the company’s property, a little west of Rouyn, Que.

At the time your father would have bought the shares, the mine was closed, but New Senator had a number of irons in the prospecting fire, including base metals in Ontario and Quebec, uranium in Ontario and northeastern Alberta, and sulphur and salt in Nova Scotia.

Active work was being done on the company’s Nicolet Twp. copper project in north-central Ontario. It adjoined the Tribag mine, a copper and molybdenum producer that operated from 1967 to 1975. McIntyre-Porcupine Mines dropped an option on the company’s Dysart Twp. uranium property in eastern Ontario in 1968.

The company stayed active as a junior explorer up to 1980, when it was reorganized as NSR Resources. One share of New Senator Rouyn is tradable for one share of NSR, which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. NSR’s address is 920 Yonge St., Suite 218, Toronto, Ont. M4W 3C7. The telephone number is (416) 929-2944; the fax number, (416) 929-2945.

NSR’s principal interest is in “prairie gold” properties in northern Alberta, in joint venture with Tintina Mines (TTS-T) and Birch Mountain Resources (BMD-A). It holds a one-third interest, and Tintina two-thirds, in the Fort Mackay property; Birch Mountain is currently earning a 51% interest from the two other partners.

NSR has also kept up several of the properties from the 1960s, including the Nicolet copper property, a claim block in Wark Twp. near Timmins, Ont., and a gold property in the Abitibi region of Quebec. It still owns the Senator mine, which has a proven reserve of 182,000 tonnes grading 4.5 grams per tonne.

New Senator Rouyn traded in the range 32 to 65 in 1968, and, at presstime, NSR was quoted at 10 bid, 12 asked. The certificate could be transferred by Montreal Trust, which acts as NSR’s transfer agent, though, at NSR’s present share price a formal transfer would not be worth the administrative costs. If you have your own broker, the certificate could be deposited in your account and you could be credited with the value of the shares, but your broker might charge for the transfer anyway.

As for Doherty, Roadhouse and McCuaig, the house was merged and became Midland Doherty, is now Midland Walwyn, and will shortly become Merrill Lynch Canada. You do not need the firm to endorse the certificate as long as a proper transfer is signed on the back.