For Immediate Release:
LIVING LEGACY PROCESS FLAWED AND DANGEROUS
TIMMINS, ONTARIO, September 12th 2001—The Porcupine Prospectors and Developers Association would like to make it known that the Ontario Living Legacy (“OLL”) sites currently under consideration by the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) seriously threatens the future social-economic well being of Timmins and area. The six proposed sites (http://www.ontarioslivinglegacy.com/underway.htm) as outlined by the MNR for the Porcupine Area highlight the serious flaws in the designation process. The analysis methodology used has blatantly disregarded significant information such as mining land titles, the economic bedrock mineral potential, and has openly contradicted and threaten the good intentions and efforts of both the current Federal and Provincial governments to assist northern communities.
“It is as if the MNR is bent upon pursuing a course that flagrantly disregards the well being of communities and people of Northern Ontario” said Andrew Tims, President of the Porcupine Prospectors and Developers Association. “While other branches of both the Federal and Provincial governments are making efforts to assist and sustain northern communities, the MNR is adamant on disregarding land titles, limiting the access to our natural resources, and sending a message to the economic community that investment in Northern Ontario will not be accepted. Establishing these paper designated parks and reserves only harms our northern communities and drives yet more of our children to the south.” added Tims.
Two of the six OLL sites proposed by the MNR for the Porcupine area lay along the general trend of the Destor Porcupine Fault Zone (“DPFZ”). These include the Tatachikapika River Plain Conservation Reserve and an addition to the Dana Jowsey Provincial Park. Both areas traverse the DPFZ, an ancient geological structure which has over the last 90 years produced over 60 million-ounces of gold alone from a number of mines from the Ontario-Quebec border to Timmins. In present day dollars that translates to over $26 billion dollars of wealth injected into the Ontario economy. In addition, both areas were the focus of millions of dollars of exploration activity during a recent gold rush on nearby lands. This exploration activity directly benefited the people and local communities of northern Ontario. Prospectors, drillers, field personal, professional engineers and geologists from Timmins through to Kirkland Lake and even from the southern Ontario communities of Oakville and Mississauga were employed on these and nearby lands. Furthermore, these people paid taxes and spent millions of dollars in our northern communities. The designation of these two OLL sites will severely restrict the potential of any such future exploration activity and thereby severely negatively impact upon the social-economic well being of Timmins and area.
The above mentioned OLL sites also fall within the area of an ongoing geological mapping project being carried out by the Ontario Geological Survey (“OGS”). The “Timmins West Project” was initiated by the Ontario government to further clarify the structural complexity and mineral potential about the DPFZ. This scientific activity does not on its own discover new mines; rather it provides an invaluable database for prospectors and others to more effectively conduct exploration activity. It is this activity which is urgently needed to maintain the well being of local northern communities.
The proposed OLL sites generated by the MNR are at odds with these positive intentions and good efforts of the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines. As northerners we ask which Ministry is representing the true intentions of the government in Toronto?
The PPDA is a not for profit organization with the objective of representing and furthering the interests of the exploration community and the individual prospector in the Porcupine District of Northeastern Ontario. We concern ourselves with issues affecting our members and work to maintain a strong exploration community today, in order to ensure that new mines will be found tomorrow.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Porcupine Prospectors and Developers Association
Andrew Tims, President
(705) 268-8063
nomex@onlink.net