Quarry, plant proposed for Foleyet.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: Ontario - Brief Article

An anorthosite processing plant could be built in Foleyet within a year pending the results of a test sample being taken this month.

Southern Africa Minerals Corp., a junior mining company based in Burlington, has an option to purchase property for a proposed quarry at a site 34 kilometres southwest of the village of Foleyet.

The plan is to haul the ore by truck to a proposed $2.5-million processing plant and storage facility in Foleyet via a Domtar logging road. The deposit is estimated to contain 858,504 tonnes of ore representing about 40 years of mining based on extracting 20,000 tonnes annually.

"That doesn't sound like very much, but it is enough to produce a healthy cash flow for the company" says Denis Francoeur, president and chief executive officer of Southern Africa Minerals. The company is also exploring for base metals near Matagami and Val d'Or, Que. and is in the search for diamonds in the Ungava Bay region.

"We decided to look at opportunities in industrial minerals in an area that is fairly accessible and could produce cash flow on a relatively short-term basis," Francoeur says.

Anorthosite, a greyish to whitish fine-grained rock, is used in glass, ceramics, metallurgical and filler applications.

But prior to any development proceeding, the company plans to extract a 500-tonne bulk sample this month that, if successful, might lead to a purchase contract with a major glass manufacturer. The undisclosed company has expressed interest in using Foleyet anorthosite in its production plants. Other customers have been targeted as well.

The bulk sample would be taken to a contractor's lab and would take about a month to process before being shipped to the potential...