The subsoil of Cote-Nord is filled with iron, but it is not only the companies that mine this mineral They are attracted to other materials as well, such as copper and silver. Canadian mining company Kintavar will send geologists to Baie-Johan-Beetz next summer to assess the possibility of a copper and silver mine.
At Baie-Johan-Beetz, the rocks date back to the middle of the Proterozoic geological period (from 500 million years ago to 2.5 billion years ago), approximately 1.5 billion years ago. Its solidification in time and its deformation favor the presence of metals such as copper and silver.
In 1997, BHP, which is considered the largest mining producer in the world, conducted studies near the village of Bay-Johan-Bitz to assess the potential of mining. I found copper and silver. The results from the property showed that the mineralization appeared to be confined within the narrow quartz veins and was semi-massive in nature.
Further geochemical evaluation showed that the mineralization was not spatially extensive. So BHP has ceased operations in this area, as the rock property does not appear to have the capacity to host a deposit of any significant size.
The president of Canadian exploration company Kintavar, Kirill Mugerman, confirmed that geologists will return to the sites excavated by BHP this summer to redo some analysis. In 2018, Kintavar carried out geophysical work at this site, so this will be a continuation of the company’s evaluation.
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