THUNDER BAY — A junior exploration company that's taking a new look at silver deposits in an area near Thunder Bay says its initial discoveries are encouraging.
Honey Badger Exploration this year began scrutinizing a 38,000-hectare territory 25 to 70 kilometres southwest of the city, where 12 silver mines operated in the late 19th century.
The company's Beaver Silver, Silver Mountain and Mink Mountain Silver properties hosted mines that produced nearly 1.7 million ounces of silver.
"We all know that new deposits are typically found in the shadows of old headframes, so that's what we decided to do in the Thunder Bay area," says the company's investor relations and communications specialist, Mia Boiridy.
"The area that we've claimed has lots of history. These were silver operations, and sometimes really high grade, bonanza-type grades, and we wanted to see if there was any more mineralization there," Boiridy told Tbnewswatch.
She noted that when mining ceased more than 100 years ago, it wasn't for a lack of mineralization.
Companies shifted their focus to cobalt when that mineral was discovered in northeastern Ontario in 1903. Another factor was a drop in the price of silver, following the U.S. decision to shift from a silver to a gold monetary standard.
Early results from diamond drilling in the Beaver Mine area, she said, show that exploration in the region should continue.
"Very promising. We intercepted silver, but we also intersected cobalt, which we weren't necessarily expecting, and pretty high-grade cobalt around the Beaver Mine area." The Beaver silver property spans parts of O'Connor, Scoble and Gillies Townships.
A corporate news release earlier this year stated that the drilling proved that "silver mineralization extends beyond the historic mine workings."
The company is now waiting for permits to conduct drilling in other sectors within its land package.
"I think we'll probably be working on this property package for quite a long time, especially if we have good results," Boiridy said "We've done some drilling and we've done some prospecting, and the thought is that we keep on drilling...We're well-financed."
Honey Badger expects the demand for both silver and cobalt for technological uses will increase in the coming years, even though prices are currently depressed.
Boiridy noted that cobalt is used in electric vehicles, a growth sector.
"That's what the forecast is from all economists, and people are trying to find good sources of cobalt. It typically comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and there's lots of child labour involved in the mining of it."
She said many companies, especially in North America, are looking for alternative supplies.
One of Honey Badger's technical advisors is Jim Franklin, a recent inductee to the Mining Hall of Fame. Boiridy said Franklin did his PhD dissertation on the area southwest of Thunder Bay.
"So it's kind of interesting for us to be there, and to be finding some interesting mineralization in that part of the world. It kinds of loops it back."
