Exploration and Development Highlights for Nova Scotia

Junior mining companies and prospectors continue to drive mineral exploration in Nova Scotia. They have spent most of their recent efforts on a variety of industrial mineral commodities, although interest in gold is growing. Development and advanced exploration projects focused on kaolin-quartz ( mica), titanium, barite, zeolites, gypsum and aggregate. Current interest in gold is focused on formerly-producing mining districts with defined gold-bearing structures.

EnviroGold Technologies Inc. successfully re-activated the underground Dufferin gold mine in 2001. The company produced gold from the three uppermost saddle-vein packages in a vertically stacked series of vein structures.

Georgia Pacific Corp. carried out site preparation at its Melford surface gypsum mine in south-central Cape Breton Island. Currently, access roads are in place, initial stripping of overburden has been completed, and the construction of mine buildings and other infrastructure has commenced. Production is expected to begin in 2002. The deposit has a combined proven and probable mineable reserve of 35 million tonnes (t) of gypsum.

Titanium Corp. Inc. completed a second phase of drilling at its titanium-bearing heavy mineral sands project on the Shubenacadie River in central Nova Scotia. An independent valuation report indicated a probable reserve of 330 million t of sand with an average heavy mineral grade of 1.94%. The company commenced pilot testing of bulk samples in partnership with the Minerals Engineering Centre at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Black Bull Resources Inc. has completed trenching, geophysical surveys (IP), grid diamond-drilling and bulk sampling of a quartz zone, and sample testing on its Yarmouth quartz-kaolin project. The quartz- kaolin zone ranges from 100 to 200 m in width, exceeds 100 m in depth, and extends for 1.6 km. Black Bull conducted market research for the kaolin, quartz and muscovite from the deposit, and has initiated design and engineering studies necessary to bring a quartz project into production.

C2C Zeolite Corp. has received all the necessary permits and has been issued a mining lease for its Tower View Property near Margaretsville on the North Mountain near the Annapolis Valley. The company plans to extract zeolites from basalt flows for target markets in northeastern North America.

Exploration Projects

3779751 Canada Inc. conducted diamond-drilling at the Strawberry Hill zone near the former Tangier gold mine on the Eastern Shore. The 12-hole drill program was designed to test the distribution of auriferous veins, evaluate the potential for saddle reef veins, and correlate stratigraphy with the former gold mine.

True Metallic Inc. completed a 14-hole drill program at its Castle Frederick project in central Nova Scotia. Approximately 5,500 m were drilled in 2000 and 2001. The company is evaluating the potential for paleoplacer gold in ancient stream channels within Carboniferous sedimentary rocks adjacent to gold-bearing rocks of the Meguma Group.

In December 2001, Atlantic Industrial Minerals Ltd. (AIM) announced plans to acquire the central block of shares of Lynx Minerals Inc. AIM reported that it intends to develop a mine and processing plant near the East Lake Ainslie barite deposit to supply barite to the oil and gas exploration industry in Atlantic Canada, and to other barite consumers in east- ern Canada.

Mike MacDonald is the mineral promotion geologist, Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources.