Newfoundland in North Eastern Canada has a long and diverse history of mining, from its first iron mine in the 1890s to some of 2018’s most exciting new discoveries. MiningIR will be writing up a range of these over the coming weeks and highlighting some key regions and prospects, from REEs to nickel, gold and copper.
The region is probably best known for its stunning Voise’s Bay project, first discovered in 1993 by Archaen Inc. and now operated by Vale with some 141 million tonnes published with an average grade of 1.6% nickel. This is one of the world’s biggest discoveries of nickel to date, Voise’s Bay however, was far from being the first major project in Newfoundland.
The town of Tilt Cove was settled around 1813, Tilt Cove was once a tiny fishing settlement with a population of about 25. In 1857 Smith McKay discovered rich deposits of copper ore and in 1864, in conjunction with C.F. Bennett, began mining operations. In 1916, the population peaked to 1500. In 1892, the “Newfoundland Colonist”, a newspaper, described Tilt Cove as:
“…the leading town in Notre Dame Bay, with the sides, top and bottom of the mines being one solid mass of copper”
In 1920 the mines closed and the population dropped to around 100 and remained that way until the mines reopened in 1957 and Tilt Cove experienced a re-birth. (Source)
Where there’s massive orogenic copper sulphide deposits, geologists often expect gold close by as Anaconda Mining’s producing Baie Verte mine can provide testament to. Around 60km west of Tilt cove, Canada’a only Atlantic Coast gold producer are confident their product will stay valuable.
“With oil going down, and the U.S. dollar getting stronger, you know foreign currencies are getting weaker, so we’ve seen an increase in the price of our gold in Canadian dollars,”
said CEO Dustin Angelo in 2016.
The company are now (30/8/2018) trading at C$0.15 higher (OTCQX:ANXGF – TSX:ANX) and producing everything they promised with their 65 staff and reliable grades.
The popularity of the area for miners and investors alike has boomed in the last 12 months, surprisingly thanks to a surge of discoveries by Dalradian Gold and others in the Irish, Northern Irish and Scottish mountains, which were historically connected to the region. First to jump on this trend were Sokoman Iron Ore who originally founded the Moosehead property. This stake has historically pulled out 442 g/t Au from boulders, and up to 170 g/t Au over 1.53 meters from drill core samples.
After successful drilling campaigns, other experienced exploration teams such as Tasca Resources hopped on board, staking around the Moosehead and finding similar trends and gold values. This region looks set to boom and all thanks to a bit of clever paleogeographical GIS reconstruction, linking the strata across the Atlantic.
We’ll be featuring in depth coverage of the regions geology and future in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
Written by Liam Hardy for MiningIR
MiningIR host a variety of articles from a range of sources, our content, while interesting, should not be considered as formal financial advice. Always seek professional guidance and consult a range of sources before investing.
