Touring Thompson wins northern support

Prospectors and explorationists in northern Ontario are in general agreement with the recommendations of the Thompson committee report on junior mine financing, Chairman Edward Thompson says.

Last month Mr Thompson and Dennis Tieman, assistant deputy minister at the Ontario ministry of northern development and mines (mines and minerals division), visited four northern mining centres to discuss volume two of the report, released in July. Seminars were held in Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins and Sudbury.

Volume two deals with taxation, incentives and government programs; it emphasizes upgrading the over-all competitive position of the mining industry.

Mr Thompson says a show of hands at the meetings showed general support for such issues as:

* the need for additional geological mapping and general improvement of the geoscience data base;

* additional airborne geophysical surveys;

* block staking;

* dollar assessment work; and

* the opening up of old patented lands and other withdrawn lands for staking and prospecting. All people who hold mineral rights should be paying taxes on those mineral rights, Mr Thompson says.

Also discussed was the need for some standardization of map sizes between claim maps, geological maps, geophysical maps, etc. One recommended size was 1:20,000.

The Thompson committee is waiting for a decision from the Ontario Securities Commission regarding volume one of the report, which represents the major issues in junior mine financing (N.M., Nov 3/86). James Turner, OSC general counsel, told The Northern Miner a decision will probably be announced in mid-December.