Page 39 about Continental, Panneton was ap - proached by a former directo r of Pel - angio Mines Inc. who wanted him to look at some reports about Detour Lake. Panneton had worked in the V al d’Or offce of Placer Dome and while he was aware of the mine he had never visited it. He decided to take a day to study the documents and was struck by the fact that drill programs had found gold mineralization all over the place but Placer Dome had found no continuity to the deposit. He came to the conclu - sion if all the known areas with gold showings could be linked together it could be a lar ge producer . He decided he wanted the property . Placer Dome had operated the De - tour Lake Mine from 1983 to 1999, producing 1.8 million ounces of gold. The company conducted an aggres - sive exploration program as did Pel - angio-Larder Mines Ltd. on an adjoin - ing property . Both companies reported “some good intersections” but they were not consistent. The mine closed but Pelangio presi - dent Ingrid Hibbard never lost faith in the potential of the area. The Abitibi Greenstone Belt is the most prolifc producer of minerals in Canada and Detour is located in the under -ex - plored northern extension of the belt. The belt produced over 65% of all the gold ever produced in all of Canada and contains numerous minin g camps containing more than one mine. In 2002, Pelangio and Newmont Min - ing Corp. of Canada Limited became joint venture partners and put togeth - er a 52 sq. mile package of land that included an option to acquire from Placer Dome the Detour Lake Mine. As part of the acquisition of the prop - erty , the joint venture acquire d Placer Dome’ s geological database. On May 16, 2002, Pelangio Mines Inc. announced that it had completed the purchase of all of the property in - terests of Newmont Mining Corpora - tion of Canada (Newmont, formerly Franco-Nevada Mining Corporation) in the Detour Lake area. The company told the world that the discovery of multiple mineralized zones at Detour Lake with the explo - ration completed to date showed the potential for Detour to becom e a new mining camp. But no outsider shared Hibbard’ s be - lief. Pelangio had faith but it didn’ t have the fnancial resources needed to do anything with the property that then comprised 76 square miles. In 2006, Panneton brought his fresh eyes to the re - ports, created a new theory and held a belief that the odds were 50- 50 that it would work. The fact that gold was sell - ing at $450 an ounce helped the situation. Although two of the giants of the gold indus - try (Placer Dome and Newmont) had walked away from the property and numerous ju - niors had looked at it and walked, it didn’ t deter Pan - neton. He formed a new company , Detour Gold Corpora - tion, went to the Cont’d from pg. 38 Abitibi Gr eenstone Belt most prolifc producer of minerals in Canada Denver Gold Show in September of 2006 where he raised $10 million and then in 2007 did an Initial Public Of fering (IPO) of 10 millio n shares priced at $3.50 a share. Meanwhile he was negotiating with Pelangio and agreed to a price of $75 million ($5 million in cash plus 20 million shares of Detour Gold, subject to a successful IPO). Also in late 2006, Detour Gold had re-evaluated the resource model and revised the mineral resource estimate to 1.4 million ounces of gold in the indicated category and two million ounces in the inferred category , using US$450 an ounce gold price. There was still a high mountain to climb but everyone, including wealthy investors, believed a proft - able peak was in sight. DET OUR LAKE GOLD DEPOSIT Premium Security Guard Programs Mine and Energy Project Specialists Security Cameras, Access Control Systems www .canadian-security .com 1-866-547-4600 Page 38 By Gregory Reynolds It took an experienced, dedicated and stubborn team to take the Detour Lake gold deposit from being a lost cause to soon to be the lar gest gold mine in Canada but every team needs a leader and in Gerald Panneton it was a case of the right person at the right time in the right place. The president and CEO of Detour Gold Inc. exam ined the records of the former producer in the stable of Place Dome Inc.’ s gold mines and came up with a theory that if a number of known gold ‘pods’ could be linked to - gether there might be a lar ge ore body that could be developed. In 1997, Placer Dome announced that it would close its Detour Lake Gold Mine, located 125 miles northeast of T immins, by the end of 1999 because the world price of gold was too low at $300 an ounce to operate a low grade, small reserve mine and exploration had failed to fnd higher grade ore. T oday , the Detour Lake area is esti - mated to have gold reserves of more than 15.6 million ounces and has excellent exploration potent ial. The Detour Lake open pit mine cost $1.2 billion and is expected to produce an average of 657,000 ounces of gold an - nually over a period of 21.5 years. That Panneton was correct is now his - tory but the mine’ s story is certainly worth reviewing as it is a text book example of both what is right about Canada’ s mining industry and what is wrong with the process of evaluating gold deposits. Panneton is a geologist and in 2006 he had over 25 years of experience, four of them with Placer Dome 1989-93 and 12 with Barrick Gold Corporation 1993-05. He always considered himself a feld man, rather than a desk jockey , dur - ing his time with these two lar ge and successful companies but while with Barrick he was given the opportunity to shepherd a project from discovery to production. “I was the architect behind Barrick’ s acquisition of Pangea Goldfelds Inc. in 2000,” he said. “W e put two mines into production in T anzania: T ula - waka and Buzwagi. T ulawaka was a combination under ground and open pit mine and I took it from discovery all the way through to drillin g, feasi - bility , environmental impact assess - ment and permitting. It was the turn - ing point of my career because for the frst time, I was taking a deposit from A to Z.” Although he was Barrick’ s director of Advanced Projects and Evaluations for the Exploration-Corporate Devel - opment Group, a need for new chal - lenges led him to move on. He joined Continental Minerals Corporation as president and CEO in January 2006. He also becam e vice-president of cor - porate development for the Hunter Dickenson group of companies, own - er of Continental. At a presenta tion he was making Cont’d on pg. 39 Fr esh eyes, new vision behind Detour Gold Corporation Success DET OUR LAKE GOLD DEPOSIT