Moydow mentioned in this article:
Joint ventures ease sting of hunt 7/12/03
By Moira Baird - The Telegram
Newfoundland's mineral exploration game is one business where
competitors seem happy to see each other succeed.
Glen McKay, president of Mount Pearl-based exploration junior
Cornerstone Capital Resources, says it's a first for him.
"This is the only business I've been involved in where you want to
see your competitors succeed," he said.
Like every other junior, Cornerstone is looking for that big
discovery -- preferably gold or copper -- somewhere in the
province. The company has 20 projects in various stages of exploration.
"We're looking for success," said McKay. "There's an old saying -- you've got to kiss a lot of frogs
before you find a prince."
The odds of finding an economic discovery are about 10,000 to one, or greater.
"That's really the most risky part of it -- the grassroots exploration," said McKay.
"We have to look more and more to major companies who are looking for properties of merit …
and are prepared to finance the additional work on your projects."
Complementary roles
In mining circles, it's called joint-venture partnerships. The juniors hire geologists and beat the
bushes and bogs in the search for minerals, while the majors provide the cash.
In late 1999, Cornerstone started working to attract those partners -- developing a technical team
to evaluate projects and focusing on marketing those projects to the bigger companies.
"In the last two years, we've been able to put together that team."
The company has partnership deals for eight of its 20 properties, and McKay expects to have two
more partners by September. Cornerstone's goal is to have 12 joint ventures by the end of the
year.
Cornerstone tries to match properties and mining companies.
"Our job is to do the preliminary evaluation," he said.
"If we think it's something that has merit, to put it together in a presentation that would attract a
company that would be interested in that type of target."
McKay describes himself as the company's business component.
In 1985, he founded Newfoundland Hard-Rok Inc., a Newfoundland company that manufactures
explosives used in road building, quarries and mining.
By 1997, he ended up in the mineral exploration game by grub-staking Cornerstone co-founder
and prospector Ken Stead in his hunt for copper.
Wayne Pickett (left) and Tim
Froude of Cornerstone Resources
look over some of the company's
properties at their Mount Pearl
offices recently.
In 1999, Stead discovered a mineral deposit type that was previously unrecognized -- a
sediment-hosted copper belt traversing the Bonavista Peninsula.
"What's so intriguing about it is where these deposits are found in other parts of the world, these
are normally very large deposits -- commonly referred to as world-class" said McKay.
Discovered on Cornerstone's Red Cliff property, he says it resembles Africa's Zambian copper
belt which spawned more than 30 mines in the past half-century.
"We broke new ground. We've proven that style of mineralization … we've proven there's a
deposit there," he said.
The next step is prove there's a deposit large enough to mine, and that means finding a new joint
venture partner for the project.
Although a previous partner lost interest in Red Cliff, McKay says a recent, independent review of
the property restored Cornerstone's faith in it.
"This guy is so excited by what he's seen. I think that Red Cliff will prove to be very significant for
Cornerstone."
Among Cornerstone's other properties is the Colchester gold property, near King's Point on the
western side of Notre Dame Bay.
Further up the Baie Verte Peninsula is Richmont's Hammerdown gold mine.
But McKay says no one had assayed for gold at Colchester before the company staked its
claims.
"The gold showings are good," he said. "That's one that we have advanced in just one year."
Geological similarities
He says it's geologically similar to one of Canada's biggest gold mines in Quebec operated by
Agnico-Eagle Mining, the parent company of joint venture partner Sudbury Contact Mines.
"Already, they're talking about how to spend the third year's funds. They're very positive on that
project."
As well, there's True Grit, an 89-square-kilometre patch of land north of Hermitage Bay. There,
Cornerstone has identified two gold targets and is partnered with Dublin-based Moydow Mines
International.
The pair have just finished drilling and are awaiting assay results. One bulk tonnage gold target
could be extracted via open-pit mining, which keeps the cost down.
"The grade is lower, but it's a big project," said McKay. "We don't need spectacular grades on that
project."
He says True Grit could have more potential than the Botwood Basin, a 4,000-square-kilometre
chunk of land in central Newfoundland that has been likened to the gold-rich Carlin basin in
Nevada.
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