Thunder Bay Based Exploration Company Metalcorp Poised For Big
Development At Marathon and Fort Frances Sites
by Scott A. Sumner
Thunder Bay Business
You could sense the excitement in his voice when I sat down to talk to Dan Courtney, Director of Investor Relations for Metal Corp, a junior exploration company started in 2003 with it's head office in Thunder Bay.
Metalcorp has several dynamic properties to explore with an emphasis on two main properties right now. Big Lake near the Marathon area is 10 kms south of Hemlo just off the highway which makes it very attractive.
North Rock is a copper platinum property, a old Noranda discovery which has a road and rail line near Fort Frances. The well financed junior exploration companies goal is to develop the mineral reserves and then sell it to a major mining company which will bring a full scale mine in to production.
When a major looks at your property they are looking at what your ore is but then the costs to get it out. You have x number of ozs in the ground and then there is the cost to get it out. Some companies have to fly their supplies in or use ice roads which adds huge amount of costs to the bottom line. Our two main properties, Big Lake just east of Marathon and North Rock near Fort Frances are close to existing towns, states Courtney. The mineral at Big Lake is zinc, silver and gold. We are also getting a good copper find and all the minerals are extracted when a mine is there. You are also in friendly mining areas where there is already some infrastructure set up and people are in the business.
These two discoveries happened at almost the exact same time for Metalcorp so once things settle down they will work on our several other sites in Northwestern Ontario. The company has 8 people in the office in Thunder Bay plus geologists and other staff on the sites
including drill rig crews. We are a big employer. Right now our two crews are working at Big Lake. We are buying all our services in Marathon. If we get the mine running it will employ 400 people, notes Courtney. We are at the first quarter of our drilling program. After this phase we will come back and look at all our data and make decisions based on that. The mining business is a big business but also a small community. These large mining companies are already following our progress. When we had the platinum find at the North Rock property
we signed confidentiality agreements with 4 majors because they were so interested and will be first in line. They have to pay a fee for this. Starting a mine is a long process with environmental and financial studies as well as many other stages. It might cost $200 million plus to get going according to Courtney. It is very exciting and hugely promising. At the Big Lake property we are getting continual expansion of our ore body, hitting and hitting good zones which means a long life time. We know we have a large ore body and just have to define the site and magnitude. One geologist is just doing drilling around the site to try and see the magnitude, states Dan Courtney. Over 3 years we have raised some $25 million in capitalization with $ 15 million just a few months a go. We have a lot of shareholders in Thunder Bay who believe in the company. We also have properties in Pickle Lake and Red Lake with N W ontario our priority.
The driving force for Metalcorp include the directors of the company. It is important to have a management team that commands respect and we have a great team known in the industry. What drives the mining industry in Canada is Vancouver, Toronto and the stock exchanges. We will be talking to investors in England, the US and Germany as well. smiles Courtney. We also have an office in Toronto but I love Thunder Bay and wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
Thunder Bay is the best place for lifestyle. You can have anything you want in a city and in 5 minutes be in the middle of paradise.
Shane Dyer is a Prospector Field Assistant for MetalCorp. I cover every aspect of the field, from claim staking and prospecting, to splitting core samples, sampling the surface of the rocks and doing channel cuts. In Fort Frances we are only 20 to 30 miles from our site
so we go home each summerday to the air conditioned house each night.We can stay in tents say when we fly in from Pickle Lake to one of our properties. Our latest work staying in the camps is October or November, notes Dyer. I love the work. It is good experience and at
the same time you learn a lot about yourself,the people you work with and the community. I lucked out starting with this company as early as I have and have worked my way up. It's really exciting and a team project.
Another Metalcorp geologist is Glenda Carey who is doing research on other sites. She took her course at Memorial University at St Johns Newfoundland. I'm looking for another Big Lake by reading old assessment reports for the past 30 years from the government. It is
very interesting to plot the data. I'm really enjoying it as it is hands on geology.
Cathy Salo is a geologist and does GIS work for Metalcorp. I use the Map Info computer program and create the geology maps. It describes the coordinates on the drill holes and we apply the after results using actual coordinates provided by GPS. It is a graphic program with a database and each sample has all the data with it, notes Cathy Salo. I have been in the field since 1985. MapInfo will be used by Ontario Hydro or even McDonald's. You can have a map and show their store outlets and which have the most customers to help where they might place a new store. We can have all our samples for gold or copper, can then create a profile map and you will be able to see where the higher ranges of that are. We have to submit a lot of
stuff to the government as well. They give me the drill hole results and the assay results and we can create cross sections to help pointout where to drill next.
Aubrey Eveleigh, is the VP Exploration and CEO of MetalCorp. The 41year old is from Seal Coat, Newfoundland a town of 300 people. He went to school at Bayvert and then to Memorial University after which he came to Thunder Bay in 1989 and worked for Noranda. Eveleigh has
done 15 or 16years of consulting after getting layed off from Noranda.
Most of my time is with MetalCorp, say 90 to 95%. I am a shareholder of Metalcorp like everyone else on the TSX Venture.There are 44 million shares outstanding and the board members and management have around 14 million shares. The stock price is about $1.70 so the market capitalization of Metalcorp is about $70 or $80 million dollars,notes Eveleigh. The shares went from 30 cents to $2.00 based on the discovery of Big Lake and the Fort Frances property. In November we raised .
Metalcorp has earned little revenues to date but gets some income from other companies. They have CA's ( confidentiality agreements ) with six different mining companies on Big Lake and four on North Rock from the general investing public and mining companies. The mining
companies will say they will spend so many million dollars on your project and you don't have to spend anything and we will earn 50% of the ownership. We would rather create value and you can buy the project out at a higher price, since we have no trouble rising money and were
over subscribed and could have raised $23 million last time. We have one of the richest treasuries of any junior mining company in Canada with $15 million. Metalcorp got money from Bay Street and London, England as well. notes Eveleigh
We have brought $25 million into NW Ontario which is a real shot in the arm for the economy. If you had 10 exploration companies doing that here that's 1/4 billion dollars. The pulp and paper has been the main stay in Thunder Bay but many of the smaller towns like Marathon
are very supportive of mining, smiles Eveleigh. Before you do a feasibility study to put a mine into production you will have to drill 200 to 300 holes. We have about 50 holes now at Big Lake and it will take about 2 more years to complete. Usually the major mining company
will evaluate the value and we will take a great deal. I wouldn't venture into mining as I love exploration and looking for these things. I will forever be on a kind of treasure hunt.
If the Metalcorp properties become mines there will be up to 400 direct jobs and other spinoffs ateach site. Given the fact that Hemlo only has a bout six years left they are hoping their property will come on stream to keep those miners in the town. Metalcorp has a lot of
operation out of Thunder Bay dealing with people in the field as well as a lot of communication with those who finance them.
Telling the story of Metalcorp on the road to create an awareness of the company is what takes up a lot of Aubrey Eveleigh's time these days. There are very few companies like Metalcorp in smaller cities like Thunder Bay. They are usually based in Toronto or Vancouver where the money. Living in Thunder Bay is a lot cheaper and investors appreciate that. More money is going into the ground instead of paying rent in downtown Toronto. We are close to the sites and near roads, notes Eveleigh. Thunder Bay is a nice sized city and has everything
you need. I have personally put a lot of money into the company and we think our company will be a fit for a lot of people.Our main shareholders are right here in Thunder Bay.
