Sudbury Basin: Still a fascinating place – by Karen McKinley (Northern Ontario Business – August 10, 2017)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Sudbury Basin and areas northeast still offer up mineral riches after a century of mining, says new Sudbury District Geologist

The Sudbury Basin, Sudbury Mining District and surrounding area still has a lot to offer for mining, according to the new district geologist. “The basin has always been a fascinating place for geologists,” said Shirley Peloquin at the Ontario Geological Survey office inside the Willet Green Millar Centre.

“It’s still proving to be a very rich place for nickel and other reserves of minerals and this could go on for decades. As demand shifts for other minerals prevalent in the area we are always mapping, surveying and cross-checking with historical data. We are always finding new deposits.”

She explained much of the underground of the basin, as well as areas northeast of the basin to the Quebec border, are largely untapped. Much of the focus has been on the easier to extract surface deposits. From a casual view it would look like deposits are dwindling, but the opposite is true.

“It looks like there are few mines, but how many places do you know have eight working mines in them? There are many more underground deposits that go deeper than we used to believe,” she said.“In the past, it wasn’t feasible or financially worth it to extract these deposits. As demand rises and falls and technology improves to make it economical, companies are seeking out these deposits.

“As one mine closes, the philosophy is there has to be another mine ready to come online. Any company would like to have more mines, but eight active producing mines is good.”Currently there are no new major claims, but there are new companies coming into the district, as well as existing companies that are expanding. “There’s the River Valley project with New Age Metals that’s been going on for a while, they picked up some new ground,” she said.

For the rest of this article: https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/regional-news/sudbury/still-a-fascinating-place-693472