SPEC Headlines, Jan. 25, 2004

THE GASPE:
Ressources Appalaches to invest $1.3 million in 2004
Gilles Gagné

CARLETON - Rimouski-based mining company Ressources Appalaches will concentrate its exploration work in the heart of the Gaspé Peninsula in 2004, in the Eagle's Mountain sector, where the firm has identified what is currently considered the most promising signs of copper in the region.
Ressources Appalaches will inject $1.3 million to further explore its Gaspesian claims this year, $500,000 more than in 2003. The company just finished its annual issue of shares and sold them in three days, for $1.7 million. The balance not injected in the Gaspé, a sum of $400,000, will be used in the North Shore area.
"It is simple; 90% of our on-site efforts will be concentrated in the Gaspé, in an area of four kilometers by four, where we have found interesting showings. But we haven't found the big target we have been looking for. According to our (geological) model, we think that the deposit is deeper", explains André Proulx, the chairman of Ressources Appalaches.
Company managers think that the samples extracted so far will eventually demonstrate that the Lemieux dome, the general area including Eagle's Mountain, contains a geological formation of the Olympic Dam type, by the name of an Australian formation where huge quantities of copper and gold were discovered many years ago. It is one of the biggest deposits in the world.

Normandeau wants to see the official study
Contamination is no surprise in a mining town, she says
Gilles Gagné

NEW RICHMOND - Minister Nathalie Normandeau, responsible for the Gaspé region in the Québec government, will wait until she can consult the study about the contamination of land in Murdochville before making a decision about Mayor Marc Minville's grievances relating to the decontamination of the soil and monetary compensation for the citizens who want to leave the town.
Minister Normandeau says that she has tried on a couple of occasions, without success, to get the study done by a Montreal firm, SCP Environnement. The study was paid for by Murdochville's Economic Development Council, a body presided over by Marc Minville. The study, which has not been released publicly, makes references to traces of contaminants in samples taken from 19 pieces of land, out of the 20 properties submitted to testing.
"To take an efficient stand on the issue, I must have a copy of the study. The question of the methodology used in the document is crucial. I am in a hurry to see the document regarding that point. But more than anything else, the comprehensive study ordered by Noranda and the Department of Environment will be the most complete review of the case. The parameters are in line with the law and the study will be released at the end of February", adds the Delegate Minister of Regional Development and Tourism.

Feds announces $1,370,000 for Paspebiac Historical Site
Close to $3 million has been received for the $4.4 million restoration plan

Gilles Gagné
PASPEBIAC - The financing of the $4.4 million restoration plan of the Site Historique du Banc de Paspebiac is now 65% completed since the federal government announced on January 20th that the final amount of $1.3 million expected from Ottawa will be handed over, and even surpassed.
Member of Parliament for the Bonaventure-Gaspé-Magdalen Islands-Pabok riding Georges Farrah announced that a sum of $1,370, 000 will be forwarded to the site to refurbish some of the eleven buildings of the tourist attraction. Work will be concentrated in three buildings next spring, notably the huge five-storey "B.B"., the Le Boutillier Brothers main storage infrastructure, and a wooden structure used in shipbuilding.
The work will preserve the architectural integrity of the buildings erected 200 years ago, inspired by a construction style more commonly seen in New England. The buildings belonged to the two main Jersey-based companies, the Charles Robin Company and Le Boutillier Brothers.