"Ore in the floor": silver hunter digs into the Clay Belt.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: TEMISKAMING & REGION

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Cobalt, famed for its 1903 silver rush, is regarded as the birthplace of Canadian hard rock mining.

But it's all new territory for Gary Thompson of Brixton Metals who's hoping to rekindle some of that magic with an exploration program to the north of that historic mining camp.

The CEO of the Vancouver junior miner is on the hunt for high-grade silver around the former Langis underground mine, 15 kilometres north of Temiskaming Shores.

"We've been busy getting up to speed on what's happening with the whole camp," said Thompson. "I'm just amazed at the amount of history there."

Brixton finalized the acquisition of Langis Mine from Canagco Mining Corp in early February for $55,000 cash and 3.2 million in common shares.

Thompson believes the 3,300-hectare land package contains plenty of open-ended potential in the silver veins at depth.

His company is meticulously gathering historical and past geophysical data of past mining and exploration work to build a 3-D model as they methodically work toward a preliminary economic assessment (PEA).

"We're in the process of building our database, taking as much of that paper data into digital format."

A former 10.4-million ounce producer, Langis was part of the Cobalt silver boom in the early 1900s. Beginning in 1908, it operated intermittently until 1989-90 when silver prices tanked and Agnico Eagle closed the operation.

Cobalt once spawned 100 mines in the town limits in its heyday, but there were operating mines in the farming areas of the Great Clay Belt.

Most of the past-producing silver properties around Cobalt are locked up by Agnico-Eagle--the company first cut its teeth mining in the area--which is in the process of remediating the old sites. However, Brixton did land the former Hudson Bay silver mine, northwest of Cobalt, in late April.

Buoyed by a July spike in silver prices, Thompson thinks there's some near-term production potential at Langis.

"This was a past producer--10.5 million ounces, 25 ounces per tonne. In conversation with people that worked there, there's still ore in the floor that they never necessarily mined out, and we're just getting started here."

Records show the silver recovery rates ranged from 88 per cent to 98 per cent.

"Our optimism comes with the fact that they produced successfully, a high recovery rate with very high grades, and we believe there's more there," he said.

The mine workings ranged between 100 and 200 metres, "fairly shallow" by...