Embracing exploration: Rainy River district rediscovers mining.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: MINING

What's old is new again. For decades, the Rainy River district in northwestern Ontario had no operating mines even though the Fort Frances area held a rich legacy of gold mining dating back to the mid-1800s.

With 27 past-producing mines on the books, more than half of Ontario's gold production came from here between 1890 and 1910.

Small wonder as gold prices have shot up that the district has become an exploration hot bed.

Now a new generation is learning all over again what the mining industry is about.

"It's a forgotten industry for a lot of people here because pulp and paper, and logging have ruled the economic paradigm here for several decades," said Kyle Stanfield, director of environmental sustainability with Rainy River Resources.

His company is advancing toward production of its flagship Rainy River Gold project, located in Chapple Township, 65 km northeast of Fort Frances.

Part of the company's outreach is teaching the locals how the mining cycle works.

"We have to start helping the public understand what mining is all about, because it's fairly new to the district. There hasn't been much mining for 50 years other than the old Steep Rock iron mine in Atikokan."

Last year, the company held a Mining Matters workshop, run through the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, which attracted 45 kids, teens and adults. In August, Stanfield was expecting 70.

PDAC educators arrive for class-room sessions at Confederation College's Fort Frances campus, before the company takes them out to view the company's drill rigs and about 700 km of core amassed since 2004.

Stanfield said many attending last year's workshops were fascinated by the detective work that goes on to find a gold deposit. The participants are walked through the various stages of the cycle from grassroots discovery, to environmental assessment, permitting and eventual mine construction.

Many are surprised that a myriad of functions are remote-controlled, computer-based, leading-edge high-tech, and are much safer than decades ago.

"I think people are blown away by the science behind it," said Stanfield. "They see this is not a brute force exercise. There is programming involved and modelling with all kinds of computer graphics work."

The underlying message is to wake people up to the idea that industries like mining help sustain our high-quality way of life.

"You see the lights go on in people's eyes," said Stanfield.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"Most people have no clue...