News

May 06, 2009

Pele Mountain Faces The Future With An Interesting Mix Of Uranium And Gold

By Charles Wyatt

Al Shevsky is not a man who is easily deterred. When we first encountered him here at Minesite in 2002 he had been put through the mangle by De Beers in the usual arrogant, charmless way. At the time his company, Pele Mountain Resources, was exploring for diamonds around the Cristal volcanic complex near the big Hemlo gold mine in northern Ontario. Bulk samples had been sent to De Beers in 2001 and he had been summoned to the London office early in January 2002 to hear the results of the tests on what he hoped was diamondiferous material. His plan then was to fly straight down to South Africa and discuss the results with technicians in the De Beers laboratories. Only when he arrived in London was he told that the tests had not been completed and he would have to wait another month. All he got was some lunch, a trip around the De Beers diamond museum and an approach about a marketing deal if his diamond project proved economic to mine.

This approach grated with him as he suspected that the tests were bait on the end of a marketing hook. His time had been wasted unnecessarily, but even that did not affect his constructive optimism. And that optimism, still intact, has been much needed in recent months as markets folded in upon themselves, but at least Pele Mountain looks in good shape for what lies ahead. Back in 2007 Al decided that uranium was the future for his company and his focus  shifted  to Elliott Lake...