By ADELLE LARMOUR
A new name, a new team and a new search for gold is on.
Brothers Nelson and Cem (C.J.) Baker, sons of the famous prospector Walter Baker, have compiled a team in their search for gold in northwestern Ontario’s Rainy River greenstone belt area. With the acquisition of over 30,000 hectares in the Richardson Township, the formation of Rainy River Resources Ltd. junior mining exploration company has recently been completed.
The recent mineral exploration history of the area dates back to 1987, when the Ontario Geological Survey (OGS) completed an overburden drilling project to promote mineral exploration in northwestern Ontario. Due to the thick overburden, approximately 40 to 60 metres deep, sonic drilling was performed. Stuart Averill, geologist and owner of a Nepean, Ontario company called Overburden Drilling Management Ltd. (ODM), performed the sample testing for the OGS, confirming some high gold grain and base metal counts.
In 1994, Nuinsco Resources Ltd. acquired 25,000 hectares of land in and surrounding Richardson Township where the gold targets were outlined. Averill and his ODM staff were hired by Nuinsco where they drilled 700 reverse circulation holes, collecting and systematically sampling both the till layer and the underlying bedrock. The results defined a large gold dispersal train (gold grains contained in the soil deposited by glacial action), described as the largest ever recorded by Averill in Canada, according to Brad Baker, investor relations officer and son of Nelson Baker.
Between 1994 and 1997, Nuinsco conducted a diamond drill program in the area of one of the five dispersal trains, where two zones were discovered: numbers 17 and 433 zones within an area of six kilometres.
Over time, Nuinsco veered off toward other exploration, and eventually put the Rainy River property up for sale.
In 2004, Nelson Baker learned of Nuinsco’s (partially explored property) gold-in-till anomaly from his colleague Averill, who described the geology in Richardson Township similar to the volcanic caldera complex located in the Bousquet area of Québec.
With some financial assistance, he acquired the property and has compiled a team of geologists from Thunder Bay-based Campbell & Associates. Averill, the new director of the Rainy River exploration company, identified the area as a caldera model and Dr. Lorne Ayres, a renowned Canadian volcanologist, has been brought in to confirm it as such. They will assemble and re-examine Nuinsco’s exploration activity, including 14,000 metres of drill core in Richardson Township.
Dr. Guowei Zhang, a structural geology expert, is also assisting in identifying any structural remobilization of the gold, Averill says.
Based upon information of the two identified gold zones, Brad Baker says the Rainy River Resources Ltd. will focus on the No. 17 zone, where 80 holes were drilled, indicating a grade of 1.83 grams per tonne.
Brad Baker is confident in their company’s newest acquisition because of the level of people they brought in.
“I would go out on a limb and say it is the best team assembled by a junior mining company.”
The company began its own diamond drilling on Sept. 15, 2005, and expects results by mid-October.
“We are closing with $2.6 million in initial financing, and will spend a minimum of $2.5 million by January 1, 2006 in exploration,” according to Brad Baker.
The company is identified as RR on the TSX Venture Exchange.
