Tri-Alpha seeking a partner for Quebec wollastonite find

A Vancouver-based junior and Quebec’s ministry of energy and resources believe they have a major wollastonite find on their hands. The 298-claim St. Onge deposit, in the Lac St. Jean area of Quebec, is owned by Tri-Alpha Investments (VSE), which is seeking a joint venture partner to explore and develop the property.

Quebec government geologist Claude Hebert said two showings of wollastonite were uncovered in the northern part of the Lac St.Jean area in 1989. The showings, he said, were situated within calc-silicate rocks of Proterozoic age.

“Detailed mapping reveals a banded wollastonite-diopside skarn orientated N 30 E with a subvertical dip. This zone is very continuous and can be followed over six kilometres. The minimum average thickness is around 100 metres,” wrote Hebert in a report on the showings.

“Typical mineralization is a centimetre-scale alteration of near- monomineralic layers of wollastonite and diopside. The wollastonite mineral was formed by contact metamorphism during the intrusion of the anorthositic mass through a sedimentary sequence.”

Hebert wrote that laboratory tests by the Centre de Recherche du Quebec on samples indicated that the wollastonite and diopside can be easily separated by classic methods and that the average aspect ratio (length-to-diameter ratio) of the wollastonite is 15-to-1.

Three wollastonite grab samples (A, B and C) gathered by geologist Ed Bawolak revealed a wollastonite content of 47% for lot B, 45% for lot A and 54% for lot C. Secondary minerals identified in lot B were pyroxene, plagioclase feldspar, potassium feldspar and calcite.

Tri-Alpha President Barry Coughlan described the St. Onge deposit as having little overburden. It is accessible to the town of Alma and the Saguenay River, leading to the St. Lawrence River and the markets, he said. The main applications for wollastonite have been in ceramics,fillers for paints and metallic fluxes. Newer uses include as a replacement for asbestos.

London-based research firm Roskill lists Western Europe, the U.S., China and India as the major areas of wollastonite consumption.

Total consumption in 1990, Roskill said, was likely close to the total world production of the mineral that year, about 400,000 tonnes.

Demand for the mineral is expected to rise. By the turn of the century, it is estimated asbestos replacement will account for 65% of the mineral’s consumption compared with about 15% now.

Developing a wollastonite deposit in Canada, at the Deloro property in eastern Ontario, are Cominco (TSE) and Platinova Resources (TSE). In the U.S., Sikaman Gold Resources has high hopes for a wollastonite find on the Gilbert properties in Nevada.