Iron ore project on hold, investors waiting for a change in government
- Details
- Published on Thursday, January 7, 2016
By Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
It’s been in the ground for a long time, it’s taking a long time to get it out as well.
There’s a large seam of iron ore deep down in the earth, south-west of Arden.
It was first discovered during WWII when airplanes, little Tiger Moth biplanes, flew out of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan base at Neepawa. Whenever the planes flew over an area south and west of Arden and south and south-east of Neepawa, the compasses would go wonky. That compass behaviour was due to a high grade iron ore deposit several miles long.
According to local farmer, Jim Pollock, a man named Van der Brink knew about the ore deposit and went drilling in 1947. “He( Van der Brink) didn’t have a diamond bit drill and it broke, but he did get a core sample and it was high test. It’s about 28 per cent and it’s magnetite, so it can be crushed and extracted magnetically.”
Pollock is a board of directors member for Tudale Explorations Ltd., a prospecting company owned by Steve Lesavage. Tudale and Pollock knew about the 1947 drilling and further drilling that was done in the 70s. The core samples confirm that the ore is 28 per cent.
Fast forward to this year and Tudale and Lesavage wanted to drill again and had raised the money to do so. Drilling down a half mile or more is an expensive process, but a site was selected a mile or two away from the original drilling sites to prove the extent and quality of the deposit.
According to Pollock, Lesavage ran into some roadblocks. While they had permission from the landowners and had a drilling rig lined up, Tudale ran into trouble with the Province of Manitoba. Pollock explained that a simple mines and minerals drilling permit only requires land owner’s permission and a $33 permit from the government. However, the province is making things much tougher. Pollock said the province is insisting that the drilling be conducted under much more rigorous oil and gas drilling regulations. That requires a legal survey of the quarter section, a legal survey of the actual drilling site and a much higher fee. “It’s thousands of extra dollars”, said Pollock “and there’s no way we feel there’s any oil or gas at that site”.
Tudale, Lesavage and Pollock have decided not to go ahead. “We are going to wait until after the April 19 Manitoba election and hope there will be a change in government.” They are hoping a different government will be more open to exploration.
