David Lewis - Kuya Silver
Talk Abstract:
Silver was first discovered in surficial, bonanza grade veins (up to 18,000 oz/t Ag) more than 100 years ago in Canada’s first great hard rock mining camp, and the subsequent silver boom in Cobalt, Ontario has produced upwards of 500 million oz since 1904. Peak silver production was reached in 1911, with discoveries made primarily through surficial trenching and underground development (shafts, adits, drifts) and lesser geophysics. The camp was neglected from the 1980s onwards but reinvigorated and partially consolidated in 2016 due to rising demand for cobalt for electric vehicle production.
The 5-element veins (Ag-Co-Ni-As-Bi) cluster in arches and troughs adjacent to major rock contacts, giving rise in the 1960s to the current depositional “paleovalley” and/or magmatic vein genetic models. In sharp contrast and consistent with early 1900s observations, work by Kuya Silver Corp. is suggesting a structural vein emplacement model with implications for ongoing exploration and development in the greater Cobalt mining camp.
Speaker Bio:
David Lewis is a field-based professional structural geologist focused on mineral exploration and works as the Exploration Director with Kuya Silver Corp. David obtained his B.Sc. in Geological Sciences from the University of Saskatchewan and M.Sc. in Geology at Laurentian University. He has worked with provincial geological surveys in Precambrian bedrock mapping, consulting roles in applied structural geology, and domestic and international mineral exploration for various precious and base metals in a wide range of deposit types (orogenic gold, magmatic nickel-copper, silver-cobalt veins, VMS/SEDEX, copper skarn/porphyry). He has mainly worked in Canada, but he has also worked internationally in Arizona (USA), SW Greenland and Mali (West Africa). In the Cobalt, Ontario mining camp, David worked as Senior Exploration Geologist with First Cobalt Corp. (2017-2019; now Electra Battery Materials Corp.) and now directs the Silver Kings Project on behalf of Kuya Silver Corp.
Mr. Lewis first proposed a structural model of vein emplacement in the Cobalt mining camp in 2017, supported by bedrock mapping and oriented drill core studies. Ongoing collaborative work with Kuya Silver Corp., initiated in 2021, is expanding on this model using LiDAR, detailed mapping, geochemistry, geophysics and drilling, and has been successful in identifying new mineralized veins in a camp with a century of intensive exploration.
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