Report from Calgary Getty/Noranda still No 1

As Canada’s northern lakes freeze over, Otter and Beaver aircraft are making the conversion from floats to skis in preparation for transportation support of winter drill programs in western Shield localities.

With the meltdown in the stock market, it brought fear into the hearts and minds of the non- believers. But across northern Canada from Flin Flon to Yellowknife the believers await the freezing of lakes to enable drill rods and tents to be emplaced to pursue high quality gold exploration targets.

As Christmas nears, a number of interesting gold programs will be drill-tested in the Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan. Getty/ Noranda at Courageous Lake, N.W.T., still rates as the No 1 gold project in the territories and probably in all of Canada.

The absence of recently announced drill information has bothered investors, but hopefully no news is good news. The expected announcement of underground plans for early 1988 should bolster the morale of Getty followers. Courageous Lake will see a lot of action in ’88 as well as Contwoyto, Indin and Russel lakes where courageous crusaders are hot on the warpath for the golden metal.

Moving southward to Saskatchewan, the La Ronge belt can look to bigger and better things as winter drill programs proceed. Leading the pack is the team effort of Golden Rule, Goldsil, Shore Gold Fund, Mahogany and SMDC near McLennan Lake.

This group shares in adjoining claim blocks with impressive gold- bearing intersections encountered recently. Elsewhere in the province, recent staking by an Australian group associated with an extensive airborne geophysical program should spark considerable activity.

Eastward to Manitoba, programs are under way or about to be started by Big Horn Development and Westmin Resources in separate projects with Tanqueray Resources and Polestar Exploration in the northeastern part of the province.

An interesting event worthy of mention is the World Solar Challenge that commenced recently in Darwin, Australia. Twenty-three space-age vehicles from Australia and six other countries are competing for the world’s first cross- continent solar-powered car race that covers 3,200 km from the Northern Territory to Adelaide in south Australia. Ford and General Motors have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in an effort to ensure victory.

Of interest, gm’s Sun Raycer is equipped with gallium-arsenide solar cells. The outcome of the race could influence battery fabrication and metal utilization.

Followers of superconductivity and metals utilized in materials employed must be elated by progress in superconductor technology. Worldwide involvement comparable to the space race should see diverse applications of superconductors from computer chips to generators and motors and fibres and cables.

The rare earth metal race with feature star yttrium has aroused interest in rem deposits from Greenland to Madagascar. Here in Canada beryllium explorers Highwood Resources and Platinova Resources have secured several prospective rem prospects throughout Canada and Greenland.

The astute investor might be wise to look into those minerals which will be the substituting materials to metals in the 1990s and the companies which have the foresight to have started the search. The wise will see not only gold as glamorous, but wollstanite as wonderful, feldspar as fabulous and graphite as gorgeous.