High prices spark uranium exploration in Clarendon

by Jeff Green

A company called Frontenac Venture Corporation, which holds historical mining leases for uranium exploration on property near the Ardoch Road west of Crotch Lake , have recently staked land to the southwest and northeast of their original holdings.

John McCance, the President of the South Ontario Prospectors Association, keeps an eye on exploration activity in the region from his base in Kingston . In an interview with the News he said it was his understanding that the Frontenac Venture Corporation is a private company that includes people from the original family that staked uranium claims in the area at least 30 years ago.

“I was at a prospectors’ meeting back in March,” McCance said, “and the amount of interest in uranium was simply astounding. World-wide uranium exploration is picking up, and I would expect that Frontenac Venture Corporation will be doing geological studies this summer to see if their claim is viable.”

The new mining claims, which are located where the former Olden and Oso Townships intersect with the former Palmerston Township , are mostly located on Crown land.

Again, according to John McCance, the holders of the claim are undoubtedly aware that the claim falls within the Algonquin Land Claim territory, and if the claims, which are preliminary at this point, extend to an advanced stage, they would enter into a dialogue with Algonquin representatives.

“As far as I have heard at land claim meetings, extraction rights have not been considered in the claim, but that might change,” McCance said.

A study was published in 2000 by the Geological Survey of Canada on uranium deposits in the so-called Frontenac Axis of the Canadian Shield . The study says that the rock formations are distinctive enough to warrant being referred to as the “Frontenac Type”.  The report includes information from Oso district, as well as Olden, Maberly, Silver Lake , and North Crosby .

Historically, uranium extraction in Ontario has been centred around Elliott Lake and in the Bancroft area, and there has never been any extraction in Frontenac County or its vicinity.

Future uranium mining in Elliott Lake is unlikely, according to McCance, but there has been lots of interest in the Bancroft area in recent months.

“Everything in Bancroft has been staked,” McCance said, “and this was all happening even before the Province of Ontario announced they will be switching from coal to nuclear.”

The fact that uranium is being prospected in this area does not necessary mean that a mine will ever be established. Ninety-nine percent of mining claims do not proceed to the extraction stage, and establishing a uranium mine anywhere in South eastern Ontario would be highly controversial, considering the inherent danger of the mineral itself.