Sarissa Trip Report – Chapleau / Nemegosenda Property Visit – October 2008
From SE Michigan, it is about a 10 hour drive to Chapleau. Homey_g had to drive 3 additional hours from Ohio in the wee hours of night to meet me. An hour after that, still in the predawn darkness, we picked up thefREEman and we were on our way. We made good time thru Michigan. Homey_g never saw the magnificent Mackinac Bridge before and enjoyed that, even though Mackinac Island was clouded in the mist of a day that rained on and off. (On our return, we happened to catch a beautiful sunset on the bridge.) Once in Ontario, we took the slightly longer route along Highway 17 along the gorgeous eastern shore of Lake Superior (the largest lake in the world) amid the last of the autumn colors. We made it to Chapleau with over an hour to spare. Like good Canadians, we hit the Beer Store. We met Scott and Drew for dinner, and had an enjoyable time discussing Sarissa and other subjects for a while that evening.
We met at the restaurant for breakfast the next morning before heading the 30-40 miles out of town to the property. It so happened that the two of them had met with another drilling company at the driller’s office the day before on their ride up, and Scott and Drew were to show them the property on this day as well as us. When we got to the gravel Nemegosenda Road, where we leave the paved highway, we waited for the drillers. We got a good coating of snow overnight (our first snow of the season but the region’s second), and the drillers were a little late on the slick roads, so we took pictures of us at the road sign.
It is over 10 rough miles from there down two-track roads amid a maze of logging roads to the property. In fact, thefREEman and OntaREEo visited on their own a month before, and we missed the property by a quarter mile, when we happened upon a hunter on an ATV who convinced us we were not in the right place. Drew was getting out at each fork and tying ribbons on trees to better mark the route. We were in the northern boreal forest of trees, meadows, swamps, and the occasional lake. An almost imperceptible ribbon on a small tree trunk marked the beginning of the property, and then we saw the blue storage shed you have seen in pictures. We continued on and stopped in the East Zone. To our untrained eye, we were not sure why we were stopping, but Scott and Drew pointed out the series of trenches that were manmade. We walked in one and saw some exposed pay dirt, and Scott and Drew explained the potential for drilling and mining in this area. In another mile or two the two-track ended. We got out and walked over 10 minutes in the snow-covered forest down steeply at times until the lake came in view and down one last steep section until we were at lake level. At one point they pointed out a bunch of drill rods from the 1950’s that they had found in the forest, setting against a tree in the middle of the D zone. Thanks for the experts, because to us newbies, we were just standing in the middle of the woods. There were also ribbons and stakes marking the exact drill hole locations. (From more recent pictures on the website, this area has now been cleared.)
The adit entrance was just 100 feet or so from the shore. There was a mini-peninsula perhaps a couple hundred feet out into the lake and it took me a moment to realize that this was formed from all the tailings from the adit. Scott unlocked the adit and let the three of us walk in as far as we wanted. We passed a mine car near the entrance, and the track still extended down the floor of the adit. As we continued into the adit, the floor was very wet, and we noticed the ceiling held hundreds of bats. They made one sound as they chirped, and after we agitated enough of them by passing by, they made another sound as they flew about. Scott said we needed to go a couple hundred feet in to get to the payzone, and not sure of the scale we went further than we needed, coming less than 100 feet from the end. We all grabbed a handful of niobium rocks off of the floor. Back at the entrance, I was amazed when Scott supplied us plastic bags for our rocks. As the rocks were wet and dirty with mud and perhaps bat droppings, that was a very nice gesture.
Drew meanwhile took the drillers to explore other aspects of the property, and discovered a better route for the equipment. On our way back up to the car, Scott pointed out drill location number 1, and Homey_g found another drill rod. Back up top, Drew had the map on the hood of my vehicle and was going over things with the drillers. On the way out, we stopped at the blue storage shed. Scott wanted to scan the area for any remnants of old core samples, but none were found. Back towards the highway, we chatted for a bit, and they indicated that they really liked this drilling company and their intent at that time to go with them. We thanked them for their hospitality and started the long ride home.
