Every
visitor to Granduc was impressed by the remoteness of the mine and
wondered how the orebody was ever located and explored.
Granduc was near the
Alaskan border in the Coast Range of British Columbia, about 600 miles
north of Vancouver. An hour's flight northeast from Prince Rupert
along the Portland Canal brings one to Stewart, B.C., an ice-free port.
Twenty-four miles directly inland across rugged mountains, alongside
glaciers and ice fields, lies Granduc.
There is no really good season for prospecting in the area. In the short
summer, a prospector had to fight almost continuous fog and rain. In the
winter, he met bitter cold, snowfall of up to 960 inches in a season,
and avalanches that could bury him and his claim in an instant.
Nevertheless, prospectors, with characteristic indomitability, explored
the area in the late 1920's. One man who camped near the Leduc Glacier
in the summer of 1931 noted copper mineral showings, but reaching the
area on foot was such a problem that no one showed real interest in the
find for nearly twenty years.
However, in 1948, a prospector named Einar Kvale staked some claims in
the Leduc area. Three years later he was back again, this time working
for Helicopter Exploration Company Limited, a pioneer in the use of
helicopters for prospecting. Kvale and a man named McQuillan staked
claims that year, and again in 1952, all on behalf of Helicopter
Exploration.
By
that time, Granby Mining Company Limited, a copper producer in British
Columbia, had heard of the staking and in 1952 arranged to send in a
team of engineers and geologists who mapped outcrops of copper-bearing
formations on both flanks of the Leduc Glacier and on the west side of
the adjoining mountain. The next year, Granby took an option on the
property and flew in drill crews and their equipment.
The reports were so encouraging that Granby and Helicopter Exploration
worked out a deal leading to the formation of Granduc Mines Limited to
develop the property. The name is derived from Granby, the parent
company, and Leduc, the river and glacier nearby. Granduc Mines then
began a five-year program of exploration and development. A year or so
later, Newmont Mining Corporation became interested in Granduc and
negotiated successfully for a half-interest in Granduc Mines.
Exploration continued for
years. Airborne magnetometer surveys were flown and checked by surface
drilling. Underground work was expanded, a shaft was sunk for deeper
exploration, and eventually a part of the orebody was delineated.
Mineable ore reserves were then estimated at 32,500,000 tons of 1.93 per
cent copper. The bulk of the ore is in five major parallel, lenticular,
steeply-dipping orebodies that are from 600 to 1,800 feet long, over
1,200 feet wide, and
