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Cassiar Courier

the Voice of Cassiar Country

JANUARY 1985

10 cents

Visits Cassiar

Sylvia Albright, Stikine Regional Advisor for Heritage
Conservation & Awareness in British Columbia, was in
Cassiar recently. She is part of the Regional Advisor Pro-
gram, whose main objective is to increase public awareness
of the importance of heritage conservation throughout
B.C. Her responsibilities are to monitor heritage sites and
objects and to survey and record new sites and objects.
This includes pre-historic sites, as well as historic sites
such as old log cabins, public buildings, remnants of early
mining, etc.

Sylvia lives in Telegraph Creek and is presently under
contract to School District No. 87 to prepare a pre-histor-
ic package for use at the Grade 8 & 9 level. She is available
to give talks on local history and a slide presentation on

heritage sites and heritage conservation and can be contact-

ed at 604-235-3121.

There has not been much work done in the Cassiar
area in recording any historitical sites and she is very in-
terested in hearing from anyone who has any information
regarding any sites or objects. Information may also be
left with Gary Swift at the Government Agent's office
in Cassiar. :

Two Month Closure At
Taurus Gold Mine

The Taurus Resources gold mine, located about 10
miles east of Cassiar, has closed until the end of January.

Mine Manager Ed Craft said the closure will allow the
mine time to put in a cyanide plant to treat the floatation
concentrate, ©

Mr, Craft said, “Primarily we make a relatively low
grade float con. As a result our shipping and smelter
charges per ton are fairly high,..It’s more economical
to treat it here than ship it out...We can upgrade the
value of our gold by about $250 per ton.” *

_ He added that the mine stopped shipping concen-
trate in October,

Mr. Craft said they will not use a great amount of
cyanide in the milling process. The mill produces about
15 tons of float con per day. He said, “No liquid effluent
from the cyanide plant will be discharged from the mill
into the main tailings. Most will be left in the float con
and the little that remains will be stored in a sealed im-
poundment, probably in plastic bags.”’

The Taurus mine opened in the fall of 1981. It is
operated by Taurus Resources of Vancouver with United
Hearne Ltd. retaining a 40% interest in the property.

The mine employs 30 people and produces 150 tons
per day. Mr. Craft said since most of the employees
were taking three to four weeks off for the Christmas

holidays, “this is an appropriate time to close the mine.”

Discussion Paper On B.C.
Schools Released

Education Minister Jack Heinrich has released a
discussion paper that will be the basis for a full-scale
review of British Columbia’s school system. A 14-member
committee has been appointed to direct a province-
wide consultation process that will produce ideas for

Continued on Page 16.

The past year has been an eventful year for

Brinco Mining Ltd. and Cassiar. J. O’Rourke, Pres-
ident of Brinco Mining, left the Company Septem-

ber 1 and P.C. Jones, General Manager of the Cas-
siar Division, was promoted to Vice-President of
Brinco Mining, and moved to Vancouver.

The mining operation, which started the year
on a three shift five day week, was cut back toa
two shift five day week, effective October 1. We
do not see any further cutbacks in the near future
with the level of waste removal remaining fairly
constant until late 1987.

Fibre production in Canada has dropped from
a high of 1,500,000 tonnes in 1979 to 840,000
tonnes in 1983, with 1984 estimated to be about
the same. Cassiar, however, has increased its share
of the market and the sales outlook for 1985 re-
mains at our present level of operation, which
means that we will be able to continue with a
summer shutdown as we have had in the last few
years. The big problem has been the decline in
prices brought on by the excess capacity of the
industry. Canadian asbestos production has de-
clined at an annual rate of 10% while Canada’s
market share has declined from 31% to 20% of

the world’s supply. This drop in production has
been a function of a number of factors, some of ©
- which are increased production from the U.S.S.R.;

the strong Canadian dollar and the high produc-
tion and transportation costs.
We do not see any improvement in prices un-

by Keith Jones

til at least 1987. What this means to Cassiar 1s a
drop in value of our product by $5,000,000 in
1985 anda further drop of $5,000,000 in 1986.
The only way Cassiar is going to survive these dif-
ficult economic times is by being more efficient
in our operation and, if we continue in the way
we have, thanks to the co-operation of all our em-
ployees, I am sure we will.

On the brighter side, the exploration drilling
on the McDame underground deposit this summer

doubled the possible ore reserves to over

30,000,000 tonnes, which could extend the life
of the Cassiar operation to the year 2010. Here
again the market place will determine if the trans-
ition to an underground mining operation occurs.

Erickson Gold and Cusac
- Sign Agreement

Erickson Gold: Mining Corp. and Cusac
Industries Ltd. have signed an agreement for the
further development of Cusac’s Table Mountain
property which is located about 20 miles from
Cassiar.

Kristian Ross, President and Chief Executive
Officer of Erickson Gold, said under the terms of
the agreement Erickson, as the operator, may
earn a 60 percent net profits interest in the
property and Cusac a 40 percent net profits
interest.

After certain terms and conditions are ful-
filled Erickson could earn 100 percent of the
title to the property with Cusac retaining a per-
cent of the net profits. :

The agreement is an optional one. Mr. Ross
said should Erickson choose not to proceed after
the first two years of exploratory work they may
return the property to Cusac.

Mr. Ross said, “We think the property has
good potential. We feel this really completes
the ground acquisitions we would like to make
within the Erickson Gold Camp.”

The acquisition brings Erickson’s holdings in
the area to about 100 square miles,

Field work on the Cusac property will begin
when weather permits in the spring. Meanwhile,
a correlation of data and geology will take place
over the winter,

The geological environment at Cusac is sim-
ilar to that at Erickson. Cusac has discovered a
number of significant vein gold occurrences,
Several of these are suitable for surface mining,

Gil Brett, President of Cusac, said, ““Cusac
has always felt that the Table Mountain property

has been, and still is, one of the premier gold
prospects in British Columbia. With the additional
enthusiasm and resources at Erickson’s disposal
Cusac expects a quick and orderly development
of this highly regarded property.”

Mr. Ross is also optimistic. He said, “We like
the geological setting and have high hopes for this
property over the next number of years.”

MOUNT SKUKUM

Meanwhile, Erickson is continuing its devel-
opment work at Mount Skukum in the Yukon.
Erickson has an agreement on the property with
AGIP, an international oil company based in
Italy. Erickson is the operator at the site and can
earn up to a 45% interest in the property for
bringing the mine into commerical production.

At present the crosscut is in 2000 feet and
Mr. Ross said, “We expect to enter the first ore
zone just after Christmas. We’ll drift along it and
raise to determine the final details of the mining
plan.”

The Mount Skukum site is located about
90 road kilometres from Whitehorse. The mine
portal is 1500 feet above tree line. The mill
will be set up below tree level in the valley.

_ The company plans to move some of the equip-

ment and the physical building itself from what
was the Plaza mill near Cassiar (now owned by
Erickson),

Mr, Ross said the company intends to begin
plant start-up by mid-summer, Production is
proposed for 200 tons per day with the poss-
ibility of moving up to 300 tons per day.

Continued on Page 16,