Promising Big Z core samples contained little gold

During the early diamond drilling on the Quirk orebody, our first discovery on the northern section of the Big Z, we had three drills at work under the general direction of Bob Hart, geologist from Preston East Dome. Given the general similarities between the Blind River uranium-bearing conglomerates and those of the uranium and gold-bearing deposits of the South African Witwatersrand, we had decided to assay for gold content as well as uranium.

So after the core samples from Quirke were first assayed for uranium by a specialist, some of the reject was sent to the well equipped assay laboratory at Preston East Dome Mines. There it was re-analyzed for gold. At the time a hundred or more samples from our drilling had been assayed. Traces of gold were found to be common, but not one economically significant assay had been indicated from the widely spaced drilling. Excitement reins

Then, with dramatic suddenness, the picture changed.

In mid-December 1953 I received a phone call from Hart. He tried, unsuccessfully, to suppress his excitement. As was our custom, he had driven several miles to a public pay phone on the highway for greater privacy. By doing this we avoided the possibility of any public eavesdropping to which we were exposed with our 2-way bush radio phone system. My secretary and I always knew when we were about to receive highly confidential news when the opening words were “. * * calling from pay phone.”

Hart’s message was brief. “We are into gold values at Quirke and nothing low grade. High grade, not one but several samples. I’ve asked the lab at Preston to re-check all equipment for salting. Sometimes we have a run of v.g. (coarse visible gold) from the Preston ore that hangs up in the crusher or pulverizes. But they tell me they’ve had no recent mine-run of that kind. I’ve prepared the assay logs for three different Quirke holes. All are high grade, in the ounces. I’ve also gone over the split core with Manfred Johnson (his senior prospector and discoverer of the Quirke outcrop) but he can’t see any v.g. It must be very fine grained. I’ll call you back in three hours when I get a report from Preston that they’ve checked all their equipment and re-assayed the same samples.”

Three hours later Hart called again. “No possibility of salting at Preston. Careful checking of assays confirms earlier values. But the whole situation looks fishy.”

My immediate reply was “put all boxes of split core into one of our vehicles and deliver as quickly as possible to Toronto. I’ll tee up Dr Langford (long-time director of Preston and at that time head of the Department of Geological Sciences, University of Toronto), and have him arrange for microscopic examination of the core and more analyses. I’ll tell Joe Hirshhorn and Bill Bouck the story. But there must be no publicity until we are sure, sure, sure.”

I went immediately into Joe’s office to report. He was busy, as usual, on his “piano.” He acknowledged my presence with a glance as he continued shouting into the phone. Instead of my normal practice of standing beside his desk with paper in hand waiting for a brief pause in his “piano playing”, on this occasion I picked up one of the beautiful antique chairs that graced his office, placed it near his desk and sat down. When he finally put down the phone he glanced at me and asked, “something special?”

“Yes Joe, we seem to be into gold values at Quirke. Bob called me twice on the subject today.”

“Ore grade?” asked Joe. For privacy I lowered my voice and leaned over the front of his desk.

“In the ounces,” I replied, “from one half to over 11 ounces and across the full conglomerate section, eight to ten feet, and in three drill holes 100 ft apart.”

“But gold?” asked Hirshhorn unbelievingly. I nodded in the affirmative.

“Are you sure?” he insisted.

“We’ve checked out the Preston assay lab. They say there’s no salting there.”

Joe grabbed for one of the piano phones with his left hand. His right hand shot towards the score of direct-line buttons.

“Don’t,” I said. “If this is for real Joe, that gold will be there tomorrow and the day after and the day after. If it’s not for real, we could all go to jail. The core’s on its way to Toronto. It will be double checked here tonight

We will know for sure in a day or two. In the meantime we keep drilling. The gold could actually be in place but as a small pocket and we’d be stung. Let’s play it cool.”

“Cool,” said Joe loudly, as a command to himself. Then he broke into song playing on the phrase “let’s play it cool” until his alarmed secretary peered into the room. News turns sour

Next morning the news was bad. Dr Langford reported that the microscopic study of several core specimens revealed no gold present within the core. The only evidence of gold at all, and there had not been much, occurred as a smear material on the outside of the cylindrical rock core, mixed with brass obviously derived from the brass diamond-studded bits.

The circumstantial evidence suggested that particles of high grade gold ore from some outside source had been deliberately dropped, by persons unknown, into the two inch diameter drill hole. There it was broken down and distributed by the revolving drill bit into the sludge and on to the external surface of the recovered core, sections of which were split longitudinally for assaying.

There were suspects among recent visitors to the drilling sites, and certain of these were placed under observation. In a small log cabin on the shore of Quirke Lake, where visitors stayed overnight, we found small fragments of gold quartz ore probably identical to the material employed in this criminal scheme.

Although there were suspects, we decided to let the matter drop and be forgotten. Hirshhorn accepted the disappointment philosophically — without a song. He knew that whoever dropped that high grade into the drill hole would have been either someone trying to make a “fast buck” or a troublemaker. In any event we didn’t take the bait.

The first drilling operation was on the Peach-Pronto property, only a quarter mile from the Sudbury- Sault Ste. Marie highway. We had rented the vacant premises of a small farm beside that highway as a base and used the empty barn for core storage and sampling.

Don Smith, the project manager, had installed core racks, a sampling bench and a sturdy locked barn door. Our staff of four, including a cook/watchman, lived in the farmhouse.

The fresh drill core, kept in the storage barn, had to be closely guarded to prevent illegal trespass and possible criminal misuse. It offered a tempting target for any stock tipsters or “scouts” searching for prior information that could be exploited — upward or downward — on the volatile penny speculative markets of Bay Street during the 1950s. Even worse, our fresh core was a tempting target for criminal tipsters who could salt it by sprinkling it with known high grade ore from other sources to make a market they could then exploit.

Appraisal of uranium bearing core can be done easily, even when closed in boxes, by simply passing a small pocket-sized Geiger counter near or over the boxes.

One morning in April 1953, Don Smith and the drillers were at work at the drill site, leaving only the cook at the campsite. A pick-up truck, which appeared to be making a routine business call, turned off the highway, drove up the lane and parked in front of the barn. By this time the cook had become aware of their presence and went out to ask what they wanted. He “half felt`’ he recognized the driver as
a lodge operator based in Sault Ste. Marie who dabbled in contracting assessment work and grub- staking prospectors. “I’m the local mining claims inspector. I have a right to see the core,” the other man replied in a slurred voice as if he had been drinking. The cook became suspicious and suggested they return during lunch hour when the manager would be there. But the pair ignored that suggestion and started tugging on the padlocked door. When the `mines inspector’ turned toward the cook and demanded the key to the padlock, the cook reached for his “clanger” instead — an 18 inch long piece of drill steel and started loudly ringing the steel triangle traditionally used to signal work crews to meals or to indicate an emergency.

After several minutes of tugging and swearing, the barn door lock held fast. The men then scrambled into their truck and fled, passing Don Smith’s incoming vehicle at the intersection of the farm lane and highway. Although neither car stopped, Smith had a good view of both men and later identified them.

We decided neither to press charges or publicize the incident at the time. The individual who said he was a government claims inspector had lied. Truth was he was an experienced bushman and casual part time employee of the government inspector. If this man and his accomplice had gained access to the core and passed a Geiger counter over it, the radioactivity would have been immediately apparent. And had they been able to act on the information by purchasing units of the Peach Syndicate then trading at about $1.50, they could have made a quick and very handsome profit.

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