Mineral exploration spending up in Manitoba

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This article was published 27/12/2024 (447 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Spending intentions on mineral exploration in Manitoba in 2024 were up by almost one-third in 2024 over the previous year despite the fact that commodity prices were on the way down.

But incentives and marketing efforts are bringing exploration spending back to Manitoba which is expected to hit almost $200 million in 2024 according to Natural Resources Canada, after having declined by a similar amount the year before.

Before the end of this year a handful of exploration companies active in Manitoba closed deals that could set the stage for a healthy 2025.

Earlier this month, Grid Metals announced a deal with Teck Resources Ltd. — which generated $15 billion in revenues in 2023 from mines around the world — such that Teck could invest as much as $17.5 million in Grid’s nickel exploration property in the Bird River Greenstone Belt.

Teck will also now have a stake in Callinex Mines Inc., a Vancouver company with a very promising high-grade copper, zinc and gold property near Flin Flon, called the Pine Bay Project, considered one of the most likely projects to become Manitoba’s next producing mines.

The Pine Bay property has already been estimated to be larger than the initial resource disclosures for some of the most successful mines in the province, including HudBay’s 777 (which is now in care and maintenance) and its Lalor mine.

Lalor is one of the province’s four producing mines along with Vale’s Thompson Mine, Sinomine Resources Group’s Tanco Mine and the small PADCO (Potash Agri Development Corp. of Manitoba) operation just west of Russell, Man.

Earlier in the year Callinex acquired an option on a property adjoining Pine Bay, called Alberts Lake Project from Voyageurs Mineral Explorers Corp.

Teck had an option to acquire up to 90 per cent of that project from Voyageurs, but Callinex has now closed a deal with Teck that will see it acquire Callinex equity instead.

Callinex will also pay Teck $1 million if it decides to build a mine on the Alberts Lake property.

1911 Gold Corp., which owns the True North mine at Bissett (which is currently in care and maintenance and not operating) closed a private placement of about $7.8 million which it will use to continue its owns exploration work in the Bissett region and fund the ongoing review and optimization of the future underground mining operations as well as for general corporate purposes.

The True North mine — one of the four most recently closed producing mines in the province — has produced more than two million ounces of gold over a mine life that has spanned close to 100 years.

Monument Bay, another promising gold exploration property in northeastern Manitoba, has recently changed hands.

Toronto-based OnGold Resources Ltd. acquired it and another property called Domain in deals that will leave Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. with a 15 per cent ownership in OnGold.

Agnico Eagle generates close to $10 billion in annual revenue.

The Monument Bay property has changed hands a few times over the past decade. Past metallurgical studies has estimated a very large resource that includes impressive concentrations of tungsten as well as gold, but new drilling will have to be undertaken to keep its resource estimate current.

The fact that it has been bought and sold so often could be an indication both that it’s a challenging resource to figure out and that it’s so promising, successive companies are keen to take a crack at it.

Agnico Eagle came to be the owners of the property after it acquired Yamana Gold in March of 2023.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca