Brent Cook: In central Idaho's old Yellow Pine District, up in the mountains east of McCall, Midas Gold Corp. (MAX:TSX) consolidated the district and has been very successful in proving up gold, silver and antimony resources. It has a resource in excess of 6 Moz in all categories in three main deposits, grading almost 2 grams/ton, open pittable. The antimony and silver scattered through it provides an extra byproduct. Permitting is likely to be a long endeavor, but probably doable, because of this area's long history in large-scale mining operations. Midas is doing some intelligent things, environmentally speaking.
This area is in the headwaters of one of the forks in the Salmon River. Salmon spawn in the river below, but can no longer get up the river because the old pit stopped them. So Midas plans to reroute the river so the salmon can continue up above the mine. Also, because the metallurgy is more complex, Midas probably will produce concentrate and may truck it to the Snake River Plain for processing. As a result, no cyanide will be used onsite.
TGR: Have you stomped around on this property yet?
BC: Not since Midas came in. I looked at it probably about 10 years ago as a consultant and in fact in my teens I used to run around Yellow Pine fishing and causing trouble. Another positive is that Midas is now led by Stephen Quin, who's been very successful growing and selling companies in the past including Miramar Mining Corp., which was sold to Newmont, and Sherwood Copper Corp., which was combined with Capstone Mining.
TGR: What's Midas' next big step?
BC: It is currently drilling now and working on its prefeasibility study. That's probably the next big thing.
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