Gold

The Little Longlac Mine, 1934. The mine produced 605,000 oz of gold from 1.8 million tons of ore.

In its first production phase — which ended primarily because of a $35 fixed gold price and issues related to fragmented land holdings at the time — the Geraldton-Beardmore gold camp ranked among the top five producing areas in Canada, generating 4.1 million ounces of gold from 19.5 million tons of ore for an average recovered grade of 0.21 oz.Au/ton.

Roxmark’s current holdings, which consolidate key properties in the camp… eliminating boundary issues and maximizing effective use of existing infrastructure, include six of the camp’s former producing mines. These mines accounted for 1,890,045 ounces of gold produced from 3.98 million tons of milled ore with an average recovered grade of 0.46oz. Au/ton. This represented 20.4 percent of the tonnage milled and 46.1 percent of the gold recovered in the camp.

The Magnet Mine (shown in 1936) produced 152,000 oz. of gold from 360,000 tons of ore.

For example, the Leitch Mine (now on Roxmark land) was one of Ontario’s highest grade and most profitable gold mines, producing 860,648 ounces from 906,395 tons of ore at an average recovered grade of 0.91 oz.Au/ton. Even more impressively, the average recovered grade over the last ten years of the mine’s operation was 1.15 oz.Au/ton.

Molybdenum

The Bankfield Mine produced nearly 70,000 oz. of gold from ore mined at shallow depths.

References in Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and mines publications show clearly that the molybdenum deposit on Roxmark’s Nortoba-Tyson property has been known for more than 50 years. However, while the 1958 annual report of Nortoba Mines Limited talks of “definite economic possibilities”, development of the property awaited today's dramatically higher molybdenum prices which are a result of sharply higher demand, largely because of a worldwide upswing in steel production.

The Nortoba-Tyson property had historical reserves of 72,000 tons grading 1.73% MoS2 (molybdenite) estimated in 1958 to a depth of 375 feet; however diamond drilling in 2005 extended the strike length and encountered moly at a depth of more than 1,000 feet. In addition, historical bulk sample results show that 135 tons extracted at Nortoba in 1964 produced 139 ounces of gold, an average of 1.03 ounces of gold per ton. (Geological Report 122 of the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, 1975,Mackasey).   Several grab samples taken in 2006 by Roxmark from the bottom of the previous bulk sample area assayed at values ranging from 0.17 to 7.64 oz/t.