Written by Mark Fields, President & CEO
We regularly get asked by our shareholders about the progress being made at the Sisson tungsten-molybdenum project. For those of you new to Geodex, the Sisson project was our main project from 2004 through 2012. During that time we took it from a small mineral occurrence to a drill defined resource that is one of the largest tungsten deposits in the world. It was a major success for Geodex and we still receive a lot of recognition for beating the long exploration odds and advancing the project from a few drill intercepts to beyond the positive prefeasibility stage. It also provided us with a deep experience base for tungsten exploration and evaluation not just for New Brunswick but around the world.
In 2010 Geodex entered into a joint venture and option agreement on the Sisson project with Northcliff Resources of the Hunter Dickinson group, and then in 2012 we sold our remaining interest for shares in Northcliff. Those shares were then distributed to all of Geodex’s shareholders on a pro-rata basis. Many of our shareholders continue to own Northcliff shares (including me!) and therefore at events such as the PDAC in early March we regularly get questions about the progress at Sisson.
Northcliff has made good progress over the past several years and we’ll describe that in the next blog posting.
The photos show some of the work that Geodex did as it progressed defining one of the largest tungsten resources in the world.
GXM Directors: Jack Patterson, Jack Maris, Jack Marr
Director Jack Marr in the middle of the Sisson Property
Sisson Drill Core
David Martin, VP New Brunswick Operations, reviews the drill core
Consultant Matt Bolu at our first Metallurgy testing
Written by Mark Fields, President & CEO
For the past decade Geodex has focused on what can be termed the critical metal suite. These include tungsten, tin, antimony and indium as well as copper and molybdenum. In a December 2, 2013 blog posting we provided some background on tin and its uses.
Tin has been in the news over the past months, at least among commodity traders. The main reason for this is that Indonesia, the world’s largest tin exporter, banned all mineral ore exports as of the beginning of 2014. Later there were some changes to the new regulations, and there appears to be some easing of the regulations. With respect to tin there had also been some changes to the required purity content. The intent of the Indonesian government was to exert greater control over the tin prices, which, by the way also trades on the London Metal Exchange, and increase the return Indonesia gets from its mineral deposits.
Among the impacts of this is to exert upward pressure on the tin prices as companies which need tin for their products become concerned about the security of their tin supply. It also encourages tin consumers to consider other sources for their tin supplies to provide a secure pipeline of the raw material needed.
These supply concerns were highlighted March 11 when the Indonesian Navy seized 2,800 tonnes of tin from a ship that left Indonesia en route to Singapore. The reason provided was that the tin shipments were suspected to not be in accordance with the trade ministry regulations.
The world seems to be becoming more complex annually, and that certainly applies to the tin industry.
Written by Mark Fields, President & CEO
We have returned from another Prospector and Developers Association of Canada Conference, the annual PDAC, and it was as usual 4 days of hectic activity. Here are various thoughts and observations on this year’s convention.
- The attendance was 25,122, down from last year’s 30,369;
- Prime Minister Harper attended, the first time a Prime Minister has done so;
- Federal Cabinet Ministers Joe Oliver and John Baird were also in attendance;
- The New Brunswick Minister of Energy and Mines Craig Leonard was in attendance and met with Dave Martin and myself to discuss Geodex’s activities;
- The traffic by our booth compared to last year was down on Sunday and seemed about equal the other days;
- The weather was cold and snowy, causing the delegates to diligently seek out the PATH indoor Toronto pedestrian walkways rather than venturing outside;
- Dave Martin from New Brunswick, Mark Fields from Vancouver and David Buckle (one of our independent directors) all attended;
- Our focus on tungsten and particularly tin was well received;
- There were spots available for booths in the Investors Exchange hall, after many years of a lengthy waiting list;
- The mood could be summed up as guardedly optimistic as far as the juniors go, however the last several difficult years have taken a significant toll.
Dave Martin at PDAC 2014 before the doors opened on Sunday, March 2nd
Dave Martin During PDAC 2014, Monday, March 3rd
Dave Martin and I will be following up over the next few weeks on the meetings, discussions and contacts we had over the course of the conference.
Written by Mark Fields, President & CEO
Geodex will participate at the Prospector’s and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Convention the week of March 2nd – 5th. This is the largest conference in the world for the mining and exploration industry.
Geodex has a booth there and we take advantage of the annual event to stay in touch with our shareholders and the industry.
Here are some interesting odds and ends about the PDAC convention.
- The PDAC was founded in 1932 and the convention occurs annually in Toronto
- In 1942 the annual meeting was expanded to a full day
- The convention moved to the Royal York Hotel in 1944
- The Royal York prepared for the convention by removing much of the furniture and carpets due to the raucous nature of the convention as prospectors from the northern towns descended on the hotel
- In 1965 there was no convention and junior mine financing was being questioned
- One of the infamous events occurred in 1987 when a prospector shot and killed a former prospecting partner on an escalator during the conference
- The Royal York had become too small and the convention moved to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in 1997
- The record attendance in 2012 was 30,369 attendees from 125 countries
In 1942 the registration fees of $1 included a full-day convention, four course banquet and dancing.
If you would like to read more about the history of PDAC please visit their website http://www.pdac.ca/about-pdac/timeline
Written by Mark Fields, President & CEO
We like cover a variety of topics in these blog postings. Most of them relate to Geodex very directly or our exploration programs in some shape or form. We also like to discuss broader subjects at times and today we’d like to touch on the role of junior companies in the mineral exploration industry.
It is generally accepted that junior exploration companies play a key role in the global exploration industry. They may only rarely transform into mining companies, however they are a key factor in many discoveries. The junior companies do this with limited resources, be it financial, human or equipment. The success is based on factors that include a willingness to take risks, act quickly, an entrepreunial flare, use of innovative methods, eccentric genius in some cases, and simply persistence and hard work.
Canadian junior companies have worked extensively around the world. They have had a lot of failures over the years. They have also had enough successes to encourage the current junior companies and shareholders to keep looking.
It is always useful to remind ourselves of the successes junior companies have had over the years. Here’s a partial list, essentially the first ten (plus one) that came into my head.
Dia Met, Ekati diamond
Aber, Diavik diamond
Arequipa Resources, Pierina gold
Diamond Fields, Voisey Bay nickel-copper
Prime Resources, Eskay Creek gold-silver
Aurelian Resources, Fruta Del Norte gold
Hathor, Roughrider uranium
Alpha, Fission, Patterson Lake South uranium
Fronteer, Long Canyon gold
Osisko Mining, Malartic gold
Geodex Minerals, Sisson tungsten-molybdenum (I couldn’t leave it off the list!)
And for a little bit of fun, here’s a photo which includes myself in the Lac de Gras diamond camp circa about 1993, a bit before the Diavik diamond discovery that I had a part in. The group in the photo was part of the Rio Tinto exploration team in the beginning days of the diamond exploration. The Diavik mine has been in production for a decade now and continues to throw off healthy profits to its owners, Rio Tinto and Dominion Diamond (formerly Aber).
Mark Fields, standing far left, at the Lac de Gras diamond Camp circa about 1993
Geodex continues to work on its projects and develop new projects, giving it and its shareholders the opportunity to add another mineral deposit to the above list.
Written by David Martin, V.P. New Brunswick Operations
The exploration targets have been identified and the drill has arrived. Diamond drilling is now underway at our Benjamin Copper – Molybdenum Project (News Release of February 4, 2014). The winter weather is cooperating (at least for now). This is the first phase of drilling by Geodex on this property. Drilling will target geophysics anomalies (induced polarization and magnetometer) and copper / molybdenum soil anomalies.
Benjamin Project: Drill Site 1 (February 2014)
Such drilling programs are always a time of anticipation for our team. I find such programs individually unique. For example drill program objectives commonly vary depending on the stage of a project. The objective for some is the discovery of a new resource while in others the objective is to define a previously identified resource. During the period of 2005 – 2009, the majority of our drilling was focused on defining the tungsten – molybdenum resource at the Sisson Project in central New Brunswick (now operated by Northcliff Resources Ltd.). The objective of the current Benjamin drilling is the discovery of a new resource. Targets have been identified through soil sampling, geophysics and researching the exploration history of the area. It is time to test targets by means of diamond drilling.
Benjamin Project: Dave Martin examining drill core at Drill Site 1 (February 2014)
We have drilled in different areas of central and southern New Brunswick, each location offering unique geology, exploration targets and geography. This is our first such drilling project in northern New Brunswick. It is also a time to reacquaint with towns such as Bathurst, Campbellton and Dalhousie. I lived briefly in Bathurst during my early days in this industry. The scenery along the Bay of Chaleur is impressive. We feel very welcome here. The Bathurst Branch of the New Brunswick Department of Energy and Mines has been especially helpful.
It is time for a drive to the drill. This is another advantage of working in New Brunswick. We have a short 30 minute drive from our motel to the drill site.
Campbellton, New Brunswick: Our home during the Benjamin Drill Program
Written by Mark Fields, President
This is an exciting time for Geodex as we are about to begin another drill program. The drill is known in the mineral exploration industry as the “Truth Machine”. After all the prior work – conceptual models, property visits, geological mapping and evaluation, soil sampling, induced polarization and magnetometer geophysical surveys in this case – the Truth Machine is on its way shortly to the Benjamin Copper-Molybdenum Project. The drill core will tell the truth as to what caused all the anomalies seen in the indirect methods described above. And hopefully its ore grade mineralization!
On our website are a series of maps which we have pored over, received input from many people and then picked the top priority targets. Dave Martin, Geodex’s VP New Brunswick Operations, then went and scouted the locations and made some final adjustments to account for the local conditions such as the forest and water sources. The crew will then prepare the drill sites, followed immediately by the drillers from Lantech Drilling who will operate the Truth Machine.
Fortunately the severe winter weather New Brunswick has experienced this year appears to have abated and the forecast is for conditions which allow for good winter drilling – below freezing but not too cold with no major snowfalls forecast.
Below is a photo of Mark Fields looking over the Benjamin maps with Roland Lovesey while he was in Vancouver recently. Geodex optioned the Benjamin project from Roland and his partners Dick Mann and Norm Pitre. Roland, Dick and Norm will be waiting just as eagerly as all of us for the Truth Machine results.
Roland Lovesay & Mark Fields at the past 2014 Roundup
Written by Mark Fields, President & CEO
The early part of the year is always an active time for Geodex at various conferences. It is a period when we have the opportunity to present and discuss our projects with the exploration and investment community, getting valuable feedback in the process. The prolonged downturn in the exploration and mining industry has resulted in fewer participants registered for these conferences, which leads to Geodex getting more attention for being one of a lesser number of junior companies carrying out drill programs.
The year starts with the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference, Cambridge House, which just finished on Monday January 20th, 2014 at the Vancouver Convention Centre West.
Mark Fields & George Sookochoff at the Cambridge Show January 19th, 2014
The following two conferences are next to come:
Mineral Exploration Roundup, AMEBC, January 27-30, Vancouver, BC
and then the always much anticipated Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, PDAC, March 2-5, Toronto, ON
Geodex plans to use social media more actively this year to enhance its experience at the conferences. Watch for some activity in this area from us as these conferences are in progress.
In drear-nighted December,
Too happy, happy tree,
Thy branches ne’er remember
Their green felicity:
The north cannot undo them
With a sleety whistle through them;
Nor frozen thawings glue them
From budding at the prime.
From In Drear-nighted December, John Keats (1829)
The above stanza from a John Keats poem could characterize the December New Brunswick suffered through. Canada and winter go hand in hand, and this year Eastern Canada in particular has had a full dose of winter already.
NB Power reconnects power to thousands of homes due to extreme winter weather
But as the poem conveys, the weather will improve and we will continue. That applies to Geodex’s exploration programs as well. We were fortunate that the worst weather happened during a period when little work was planned. Our induced polarization (IP) survey at Benjamin has been delayed, however we expect to have it completed this week. We are still well positioned for our initial drill test, planned for late January-February, at the Benjamin copper-molybdenum project west of Bathurst.
That being said, we will try and pick a good weather window for the drilling and hope that “drear-nighted” December’s weather will not continue!
Best of the New Year to everyone,
Written by Mark Fields, President & CEO
Written by David Martin, V.P. New Brunswick Operations
Diamond drilling is underway at our South Dungarvon Tin Project (News Release of December 9, 2013). This is the second phase of drilling by Geodex on this property. Earlier this year we drilled the eastern region of the property, discovering a new area of tin mineralization (News Release of August 1, 2013). The current drill program will test additional geochemical and geophysical targets in the western half of the property, including one area in which Geodex staff discovered high grade tin bearing rubble near an old trench.
Bruce Stewart, Geodex employee, at South Dungarvon during drilling
David Martin, Geodex V.P. New Brunswick Operations, examining drill core
Although I have been involved in many such drill programs, they are all exciting and individually unique. This is a late fall program. However winter conditions have set in as can be seen in the photos. The winter programs are more of a challenge as was the case during the snow storm yesterday. It is already cold enough for the full winter clothing as evident in the photos. One photo is of Jacques, the day-shift driller. He is not shy and trying to avoid having his face revealed in this photo, just protecting himself from the cold conditions.
Jacques Doucet, Driller for Lantech Drilling Services Inc, dressed for winter drilling
I have now caught up on a few office items this morning. It is time to pick up Bruce (Bruce Stewart) for the next site visit. More drill core awaits.
Geodex Talks Minerals 