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Tres-Or Resources Ltd - Street Wire

Tres-Or joints hunt for Timiskaming ice

 

Tres-Or Resources Ltd	TRS
Shares issued 9,752,401	Oct 4 2001 close $.230
Friday Oct 5 2001	Street Wire
by Will Purcell
Another junior explorer has hopped onto the southern fringe of an old Ontario diamond play, along a portion of the Timiskaming rift between Lake Timiskaming and North Bay. Whether Laura Lee Duffet's Tres-Or Resources Ltd. will be able to successfully promote or explore its new play remains to be seen, but the region does seem prospective for diamonds. Much of the area around Marten River has seen little in the way of exploration over the past few decades, due to a land caution that hampered any serious effort. That all changed when the caution was lifted in the mid 1990s, but diamond explorers seemed reluctant to flock to the area, as the main diamond play in the area ended with barely a whimper.
Nevertheless, that diamond play, which was centred near Lake Timiskaming and to the northwest toward Kirkland Lake did produce many kimberlite discoveries, most of which proved to be at least marginally diamondiferous. Those finds would seem to support the recent findings of a favourable report that was prepared by the Ontario government, extolling the virtues of the area around Marten River.
The Ontario Geological Survey (OGS) report was released in mid-April at a mineral symposium in Sudbury, probably in the hopes of attracting explorers to the area, however it seems that much of the land had already been snapped up by then. Tres-Or began acquiring land in the region about two months earlier, and the company's main rival in the region, Mustang Minerals Corporation, was on the scene several months before that, acquiring the first claims of what was to become a substantial land holding in the region.
The OGS report, which was the result of a stream sediment sampling survey, revealed that the region had an increased possibility of containing kimberlite, and of greater importance, the study indicated that a significant number of kimberlite indicator minerals were present in some areas, which suggested that some of the kimberlites would likely be diamondiferous.
The possibility of Ontario diamonds first caught the attention of explorers about 100 years ago, when gems began turning up in Southern Ontario and Michigan. In the early 1900s, a diamond was supposedly found in Bucke Township that may have weighed more than 100 carats. Legend has it that the United States Geological Society described the stone as being as large as a hen's egg, with a weight of up to 1,000 carats. Just how much truth there is to that story is hard to say, but there have been large diamonds found further south that probably originated along the Timiskaming rift, including a 30-carat diamond that was unearthed near Peterborough. Nevertheless, explorers did not take it seriously until the 1960s, when samples of kimberlite turned up in drill cores, and it was not until the 1980s that the first kimberlite pipes were discovered.
Many kimberlite pipes were found along the rift over the next 15 years, and the area attracted some notable explorers, including the king of the diamond hunters, De Beers. Falconbridge and Lac Minerals also joined in the search, but all of them seemed to come up empty, and the gory details of the sampling programs were generally left to the much smaller Canadian junior explorers.
The results from the Clifford pipe were typical of most of the kimberlites that were advanced to the stage of taking a mini-bulk sample. The pipe attracted Chuck Fipke and his Dia Met Minerals, back in the days when both were unknown quantities, but success in Canada's North prompted Mr. Fipke to quickly abandon the Ontario play.
Although Mr. Fipke was gone, there were other juniors willing to take his place, and the Clifford pipe got a few more examinations through the years. When all was said and done, about 140 tonnes of kimberlite from Clifford had yielded three diamonds larger than 0.12 carat, including one stone that weighed 0.204 carat, but the grade of 0.004 carat per tonne was far too minuscule to merit serious attention.
There were other finds in the area that were advanced to the point of taking a mini-bulk sample, but all of them produced equally dismal grades. One of the kimberlites, the Bucke pipe, was looked at time and again through the years. Even today, at least token lip service is paid to having another go at Bucke.
De Beers was first to take a crack at Bucke, and later, Lac Minerals hoped to have more luck, to no avail. Progressively smaller junior explorers then moved in to take their shot at Bucke, but when all was said and done, its grade appeared similar to the Clifford pipe -- far too low to have a chance. Just last year, Novawest Resources tried sampling another portion of the pipe, but it came up with just a solitary microdiamond for its trouble.
The area around the Bucke and Lake Timiskaming was well explored in the early 1990s, and the region did produce several kimberlites, but few diamonds. One intriguing results was obtained by Sudbury Contact Mines, to the west of Lake Timiskaming. The company's 95-2 pipe seemed just marginally diamondiferous, as just 52 stones were recovered from 1,104 kilograms of kimberlite, but the size distribution of the diamond population appeared to be quite coarse. A total of four of those diamonds were longer than one millimetre, and two of those measured more than two millimetres in length. Nevertheless, the company soon lost interest in the Ontario diamond play, and no further work was completed on the pipe.
That pipe is fairly close to Temagami, and it might be representative of possible kimberlites further south. Of course, it remains to be seen if Tres-Or and its rivals can actually come up with any kimberlite pipes, much less an economic source of diamonds, especially given their modest plans for their fairly large properties.
Tres-Or first moved into the region early this year, and the company nearly doubled its land position this summer, increasing its claim block to about 34,000 hectares. Tres-Or is now taking its first, tentative steps to actually explore the property. The company has been reviewing the available data, mainly the existing kimberlite indicator mineral sampling results, in the hopes of identifying and refining the location of the dispersion trains of the indicator minerals. As well, some work on the ground is being done over some possible targets that were identified in earlier work.
Tres-Or does not have much cash to throw at its new diamond play, and the company seems to tout the lack of work commitments as an attractive feature of its acquisition of the property. Speculators hoping for a major work program will likely be disappointed, as Tres-Or had only $100,000 in working capital at the end of May. The company has completed some smaller private placements over the past year, but more cash will be required to actually mount a serious exploration program. Just how serious Tres-Or is about diamonds remains to be seen, as the company spent only about $16,000 on exploration to the end of May.
Tres-Or is not alone in its hope that the Marten river area will produce some encouraging diamond finds. Mustang Minerals began quietly picking up land in the area late last fall, and it added to its position through the spring and summer. Mustang now has an interest in about 37,000 hectares of ground in the Marten River area, slightly larger than Tres-Or's claim block.
Just a few weeks ago, Mustang struck a deal with Falconbridge that would allow Mustang to earn a 50-per-cent stake in claims owned by the company. Falconbridge had been poking around the area, looking for diamonds through the 1980s, but the land caution did not allow much to be done, and the company now seems to have lost interest.
A Tres-Or share could be had late last year for just four cents, but a winter and spring rally carried the stock to a high of 39 cents by late April. Since then, the stock has retreated as the company's exploration program has failed to match the pace set during its acquisition phase. Tres-Or gained three cents Thursday, to close at 23 cents.
(c) Copyright 2001 Canjex Publishing Ltd. http://www.canada-stockwatch.com

 

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