Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Dec 01/99) - Suggesting that Con mine and Giant mine gold deposits are part of two scenes in the same photo is not new. Models as far back as 1949 suggest the Giant deposit is an upward extension of Con's Campbell zone.

There has recently been renewed interest in better defining both.

On the surface, the notion that the two mines are part of the same deposit holds water. They are, after all, in very close proximity to each other.

To better understand the nature of both deposits -- or the deposit -- PhD student James Siddorn has spent months studying the sites. He spoke Friday at the Geoscience Forum. held at the Explorer Hotel.

After several months at each mine, next year will be his final field season on the project.

Knowing more about the geometry of Giant and Con could give clues as to where to look for more economically- viable gold ore.

Siddorn, a structural geologist originally from Staffordshire, England, has had the unique opportunity of extensive underground access to both Giant and Con mines. He has also had what he calls an invaluable amount of co-operation from people at the site, like geologists and miners.

Siddorn's study is part of the EXTECH project, a government-funded program to expand the database of the Yellowknife Greenstone belt, which is home to Giant, Con and several other past-operating mines.

By knowing more about the belt, resource seekers are better equipped to know where to look for minerals. For Giant and Con, it may mean expanding reserves and thus the lives of the two sites.

"Through study, we get a better understanding of the two deposits and develop new ideas for exploration of the EXTECH region and provide information for places elsewhere," he said.

"By understanding the deposits themselves, more reserves may be found on the two (Giant and Con), or in the belt," he said.

By expanding data on the two mines, geologists, in the future, may determine answers to questions like why -- if it is the same deposit -- does the Campbell zone at Con mine contain gold to 6,000 feet, yet Giant mine stops at 2,000 feet, Siddorn said.

One key to finding out the link between the two elephants will be continued operation of Giant, he suggests.

"With the mine operating, we have an opportunity to understand more about the deposit."

Con owner Miramar is currently negotiating to acquire Giant, in the hands of a receiver after the Royal Oak bankruptcy, and operate it as a satellite mine.

But, adds Siddorn, if Giant is completely shut down, answers to questions like where did the gold for both come from and is there more out there may never be answered.