NovaGold, HudBay Headline PDAC Award Winners

The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada presented seven awards at a ceremony at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel during the association’s 77th annual convention in Toronto.

The Thayer Lindsley Award for an international mineral discovery was awarded jointly to Richard Garnett and NovaGold Resources (NG-T, NG-X).

Garnett, a mining engineer and geologist, was the technical director of Anglo American (AAUK-Q , AAL-L) subsidiary WestGold when he first visited the site in 1986 after receiving a tip from Bruce Hickok of Alaska Earth Sciences.

Garnett and his team began to investigate the site further after coming across two cornflake-sized gold pieces in a placer miner’s sluice box. WestGold’s field team was led by Tony Hinderman, Paul Graff and Dan Hausel.

But WestGold pulled out of North America in 1990 and Garnett joined Diamond Fields Resources and played a role in the discovery of the vaunted Voisey’s Bay nickel deposit in Labrador.

Meanwhile, NovaGold CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, then Placer Dome’s Alaskan exploration manager, looked up Hickok and they got to talking about Donlin.

Van Nieuwenhuyse formed a team that assembled some maps of the deposit, which would ultimately convince Placer Dome to spend money exploring Donlin Creek. But in the late 1990s, with gold around US$300 per oz., Placer walked away from Donlin and Van Nieuwenhuyse walked away from Placer.

Van Nieuwenhuyse managed to strike a deal with Placer, however, to earn back-in rights on Donlin. He formed a team consisting of Joe Piekenbrock, Greg Johnson, Doyle Albers, Robert Prevost, Stan Dodd, Phil St. George, Jim Muntzert and Scott Petsel whose efforts led to the discovery of the largest known untapped gold resource in North America.

Today, Donlin Creek is half-owned by Barrick Gold (ABX-T, ABX-N) and hosts resources, in the measured and indicated category, of 16.6 million oz. gold and another 17.1 million inferred oz. gold.

“The deposit itself is what really should be receiving the award,” said Van Nieuwenhuyse.

Garnett added that finding deposits like Donlin Creek takes “gut feel,” “attention to detail” and a “whole lot of luck.” He also praised the work of Hickok, who died in a skiing accident.

The Viola R. MacMillan Award for a company or mine development went to Goldcorp (G-T, GG-N).

The debt-free major producer is one of the world’s lowest-cost gold miners and has 41 million oz. in reserve.

Goldcorp started in 1946 as Dickenson Mines, but really started to gain momentum in the mid-1990s with the discovery of the high-grade gold zone at the Red Lake mine, which has averaged more than 2 oz. per metric tonne since it went into production.

Goldcorp has used its cash from Red Lake to become active on the takeover front. In 2005, it merged with Wheaton River Minerals and acquired its Alumbrera copper-gold mine in Argentina and the Los Filos gold mine in Mexico.

Then it bought all of Placer Dome’s Canadian assets after the company’s takeover by Barrick in 2006. The deal brought the Campbell, Porcupine, and Musselwhite gold mines into the fold. That same year, Goldcorp bought Glamis Gold. And, in 2008, it bought Gold Eagle Mines and its gold properties in the Red Lake camp.

Goldcorp now operates 10 mines throughout North and South America. Another five are being developed, including Penasquito in Mexico, which will be the country’s largest open-pit mine, and has 13 million oz. gold in reserve.

Goldcorp CEO Charles “Chuck” Jeannes, who took the helm in December, praised the work of his predecessors Rob McEwen, Ian Telfer and Kevin McArthur. “Without their risk-taking and entrepreneurial spirit, this never would have happened,” Jeannes said.

The Bill Dennis Award for a Canadian discovery or prospecting success went to Alan Vowles and Kelly Gilmore of HudBay Minerals (HBM-T, HBMFF-O) for the Lalor Lake zinc discovery near Snow Lake, Man.

In 2002, more than a decade after exploration began, Vowles, a geophysicist, decided to conduct an experiment to see if he and his team could see HudBay’s Chisel North zinc mine 600 metres below surface in the Chisel basin.

Using Crone Geophysics’ deep-penetrating EM system, Vowles plotted the layout of a large loop over the 2-sq.-km surface above the Chisel mine and hired Dave Koop of Koop Geotechnical Services to do the work.

The experiment was based on the premise that even though the zinc is not conductive, it is associated with minerals that are.

Vowles flicked a switch that sent current through 10 km of wire and then he and his team went for lunch. When they returned, the mine was clearly in evidence 600 metres below surface. They applied the technology to other areas and eventually discovered two large targets 800 metres down.

Gilmore, now HudBay’s chief exploration geologist, drilled the targets and the core quickly revealed the distinctive Lalor “black jack” zinc.

Subsequent drilling has found a gold zone, which could make the deposit more economic.

“Many, many people were involved in the discovery,” Gilmore said. “And only a few are here tonight.”

The other award winners are as follows: The Environment and Social Responsibility Award went to BioteQ Environmental Technologies (BQE-T, BTQNF-O) for its work in treating runoff from past-producing mine sites; The Skookum Jim Award for aboriginal achievement went to Tli Cho Logistics for providing reliable services to Canada’s northern, remote diamond mines; the Distinguished Service Award was presented posthumously to David A. Barr for his exceptional efforts to improve health and safety conditions in mineral exploration in B. C.; and a Special Achievement Award was presented to the Britannia Beach Historical Society for its restoration of the past-producing Britannia copper mine, once the largest in the British Empire, into a museum and visitor centre.

— With files from the PDAC.