Article translated:

Simon-les-Mines, authorized the company to access their property, which allows the continuation of the mining exploration project undertaken by the company several years ago.

January 30, 2018
Updated 29 January 2018 at 22h58
Share
A Beauce village dreams of gold
Jean-Frédéric Moreau
The sun
Share
The citizens of the small municipality of Saint-Simon-les-Mines, Beauce, are behind the company Les Champs d'Or Beauce to move forward in its project to discover an important gold deposit.

After meeting with them individually, the Beauce Company, a subsidiary of HPQ Silicium Resources Inc., has received the support of the 24 private owners, who represent 32 different real estate lots, in order to have access to their properties. This agreement was necessary for the company to continue its geophysical exploration program.

"It's been done very respectfully, so I'm not surprised people are open-minded. The company's method was to create a dialogue, "commented the mayor of Saint-Simon-les-Mines, Martin Saint-Laurent.

A public meeting was also held last November to dispel the fears that some residents had about the project. "People were suspicious of stories like Malartic [in Abitibi]. It is aimed at their property and they do not want to see their small village change, "said the mayor.

Malartic, the Abitibi community located a few kilometers west of Val-d'Or, is home to the largest open pit mine in the country. A story that left the worst fear to a few citizens, who did not hesitate to ask the question to the representatives of the company as well as experts gathered at the public meeting.

"The answer to that is most likely not," said the chairman of HPQ Silicon, Patrick Levasseur, questioned on the subject. "Our geologists believe that if there is a discovery, it will most likely be very concentrated and very localized."

The president of HPQ Silicium recalls that the extraction of gold requires "another degree of social acceptability". "If you ever discover gold, it's a whole new dimension," he said, recalling the many steps to take before starting such activities.

For the moment, Mr. Levasseur refuses to advance on the precise date of the beginning of the exploration phase. "Everything is in place for it to happen soon," he said. The Golden Fields of Beauce is focusing its energies on integrating the Toronto Stock Exchange to fund its exploration activities.

Historical rush

The conquest of the precious gilded metal has a long history for this municipality of 500 inhabitants. Since the 19th century, mining has been used to extract hundreds of thousands of ounces of gold from this area.

But the project presented to the citizens takes a whole measure: this time, the geologists and the mining company seek to find the "real" gold mine, the one from which the gold that was formerly extracted would come. "The source mother", illustrates Patrick Levasseur, president of HPQ Silicium.

This is because all the gold that has been extirpated from Saint-Simon-les-Mines to date is of the "placer" type, explains Mr. Levasseur. This means that the gold, which comes from a parent deposit, has eroded from it and then, transported by a force of nature, has formed a new deposit thanks to gravity. This is the reason why, among other things, we collected some huge nuggets in the Gilbert River, including a weight of 51 ounces.

"After 150 years, it's time to answer the question if there is a deposit!" Exclaimed Mr. Levasseur, whose exploration projects aim to identify the location of this "source source ".

The latter believes that the region could experience another gold rush, similar to that which began in the Yukon in 2008. Recalling that the first wave of gold exploration in Canada was conducted in Beauce in the 1800s, the benefits of simple mineral exploration can be in the millions. In the Yukon, Mr. Levasseur estimates them at close to $ 1 billion. "There was a time when there were 2000 miners in Saint-Simon-les-Mines. There is a very rich history of mining activity that has been forgotten, "he said, convinced that a mining project would create many interesting job opportunities for the residents of the village.

Since 2010, Mr. Levasseur and his associates have been trying to discover the origin of the yellow metal in this territory. To achieve this, drilling was carried out while the company was named Uragold Bay Resources. The latter became in 2013 HPQ Silicon, after the mandate of the company was reviewed.