Second life for historic silver camp: Historic mining area near Ontario/Quebec border garnering attention for cobalt resources.

• Author: McKinley, Karen
• Position: MINING

The land around the town of Cobalt, despite the name, was once one of the richest silver finds in the nation.

Decades after that boom ceased, another one is on the horizon, this time for the town's namesake.

As demand for electric vehicles grows across the world, one company is taking a second look at the cobalt resources that were once thrown away.

First Cobalt Corp. gave a Jan. 16 presentation in Sudbury on their latest findings and plans to drill on several properties they purchased near Cobalt, many of them historical silver mine sites, to determine the scope and quality of the cobalt resources.

Frank Santaguida, vice-president of exploration for the company, led the discussion, which included everything from the history of the community to the challenges of accurately mapping resources in areas where material was moved from one location to another.

"What we are presenting here is the work we've done in the past year in the Cobalt Camp," he said.

He described the presentation as an open discussion on the learning process over this last year. The team and company has been learning how to explore the area geologically, find old cobalt deposits where there used to be silver, and discover new veins and resources.

For the history aspect, Santaguida talked about the period between 1904 and 1989, when 50 million pounds of cobalt and 600 million ounces of silver were taken from about 100 different mines in the area. At the time, he said mining operations were focusing on following the silver veins, and operations were very shallow, about 200 metres below surface.

It is eerie at times, he said, to be in an area that was once home to more than 10,000 people during the peak.

Within the property First Cobalt owns, there are 50 previous producing mine sites. In the entire camp, he said there are 115 old sites.

A lot of the work has involved looking at old data on the area to determine where to drill. By targeting some of the old veins, he said they are finding new vein systems. They have also been digging through old tailings in pits, trenches and muck piles to find leftover cobalt.

Recently, the company announced they are going ahead with a $7-million drilling program will involve more than 26,000 metres of drilling on 13 different targets. These areas include the Kerr, Drummond, Juno, Ophir, Hamilton, Silver Banner and Silverfields mines in Cobalt North, the Caswell mine in Cobalt Central, and the Bellellen, Keeley and Frontier mines in Cobalt...