COLUMN: Carillon Flashback January 27, 1988 – Good odds of finding ore in Whitemouth Lake area

Chances are good a significant body of ore lies under the Whitemouth Lake area, a spokesman for a Vancouver based resource company says.

“We do have something there … it’s just a matter right now, of finding out what,” geologist Dylan Watt of Almaden Resources Corporation told The Carillon; however, it would be “speculative” to comment on the possibility of a mine being opened in the near future, he cautioned.

Watt said the company has “staked a claim” on more than 500 square miles of Crown land, divided into three blocks, in southeastern Manitoba.

A northern block straddles the Trans-Canada Highway near Falcon Lake, a central block is located in the Whitemouth Lake area, and a southern block is located in the Wampum-Vassar area, near the U.S. border.

The company has conducted airborne geophysical surveys of the area and is in the process of conducting a ground survey in the Whitemouth Lake area, Watt said.

They are “looking for any type of metallic ore body.”

Initial interest in the area was “sheer speculation” sparked by the geological trends of northern Ontario, which includes gold, and might continue into southeastern Manitoba, Watt said.

Noting any ore in the area is buried by 200 feet of overburden, Watt said the area has only been given a “cursory” examination. The potential exists for almost any kind of economic ore body to be there.

At the moment, the overburden is being tested. Within the next week to 10 days a diamond drill will be moved to the site to bore into the bedrock, Watt said.

The company has had 10 to 15 local residents, working out of a campsite near the lake during the winter.

Most are line cutters. Others are conducting electromagnetic surveys. The men will remain at the site until breakup, Watt said, adding it is “very much likely” crews will return next winter.

This summer, the company will drop a number of claims as they narrow the field of investigation.

Watt said this is the first year Almaden has had employees actually working on the ground.

However, provincial director of mines Bill Bardwich said investigations, involving several companies, “have been going on and off for years.”

During the winter of 1984, Selco Inc., a subsidiary of BP International, conducted tests in the area.

While he is optimistic about the possibility of finding an economic ore body, Watt said it is simply too early to comment on the possibility of a mine being developed.

However, he has already been approached about jobs in a mine, he noted.

– with files from Tim Plett