On the Level (November 18, 1991)

“Thought you might be interested in this,” writes my sister from Thunder Bay, Ont., enclosing a copy of North Magazine, a weekly Lakehead publication.

Indeed I was, for the cover story is the rags-to-riches saga of Roy Barker, who co-discovered Noranda’s fabulous Geco mine at Manitouwadge in 1953. Still pouring out copper, zinc and silver in quantity, it made him a millionaire almost overnight.

Ontario dearly needs something of that ilk to lift the malaise sweeping the north country, abetted by a bureaucracy seemingly cold to mining and intent on driving exploration and development dollars to greener fields. Barker, whom I knew well, was one of three so-called Sunday prospectors from Geraldton who has left quite a legacy. He was a cage tender at Little Long Lac Gold Mines where I worked prior to joining The Northern Miner in 1949. His partner, Bill Dawidowich, was an underground timberman there. Jack Forster, who shared equally in the spoils, knew absolutely nothing about prospecting. He was the local GM dealer who did well in the postwar demand for cars and took up flying for recreation.

A dead ringer for CBC’s Charlie Farquharson, Barker was a frugal, practical individual. Quite a deal maker, too. He talked Forster into flying them to White Lake to look at a base metal outcrop marked on an old Ontario Department of Mines geological map that apparently went unnoticed for years by prospectors more interested in gold.

Samples were sent to several of the larger mining companies and largely ignored. But not by the late W.S. (Bill) Hargraft, a close friend and former manager of Tombill Mines whom Barker respected.

Hargraft, closely associated with General Engineering Co. (GECO) at that time, made a hasty site visit, liked what he saw and made an on-the-spot deal with Barker — $30,000 cash ($10,000 each) and a 15% interest (5% each) in any company formed, plus a firm commitment for 5,000 ft. of diamond drilling. The Geraldton trio staked additional ground, four key claims of which were subsequently purchased on a straight royalty basis — 15 per ton of ore (5 each) which proved highly profitable.

I saw some of their royalty cheques. These were quite something, rolling in month after month. And of course they got bundles of stock in Geco Mines which started at $5.55 on listing and rose to $43.75 until swallowed up by Noranda Mines 10 years later — seven Noranda shares for each eight Geco. As I said, Barker was both frugal and practical. He used to phone me at The Miner on his annual trips to the Prospectors’ convention in Toronto, invariably inviting me down to the Royal York Hotel for a cup of coffee at the lunch counter. Sometimes a doughnut too. His tip, I noticed, was on the slim side. During one of those tete-a-tetes, he said he had an open order with his broker to sell 1,000 shares of Geco at each dollar advance. He had just sold 1,000 at $36.

While Forster and Dawd moved on to greener pastures, Barker remained in Geraldton, a town he truly loved. But instead of his 3-room log cabin, he built himself quite a mansion on an 11-acre landscaped site recently restored to serve as the town offices. He died on March 22, 1970.

While Barker and his partners certainly did well from their weekend jaunt to Manitouwadge, so did Noranda.

The Miner files showed that a bonanza mine was shaping almost from Day One. But it would cost many millions to put it into production. Nevertheless there were offers galore. The best was from Mining Corp. of Canada, a Noranda affiliate which guaranteed to put up all funds necessary to bring it into production at an initial 3,000-ton rate.

It was a textbook deal; Geco was capitalized at three million shares. No reorganization was ever necessary and shareholders’ interests were never diluted. The prospectors and original developers received free vendors shares. The first blocks of treasury shares were sold at $2 and $3. When Mining Corp. stepped into the picture, it underwrote 744,933 shares at $10, leaving 200,000 shares in the treasury which were sold as a rights offering to the happy Geco shareholders.

This mine has been a cash cow for Noranda over the past 34 years.