Bonanza Revisited

Geologists, newsmen and stockbrokers were beating a path last week to the tent flaps of a prospector named Robert Campbell, on the chilly shore of Lake Superior. Seventy miles north of Sault Ste. Marie, he had just staked out Canada's newest uranium discovery. Even cautious officials in Canada's Department of Mines thought that his samples looked like "very high-quality ore."

Campbell was not the first to find uranium north of the Soo. In 1847, U.S. copper prospectors had come across uranium. Because uranium was useless at the time, they mentioned their find only vaguely in reports that lay moldering in Toronto libraries until Campbell looked them up last year.

Last spring, 34-year-old Bob Campbell set out to rediscover the old strike. He formed a syndicate, raised $4,000, bought a boat and some Geiger counters. With two other prospectors he started probing his way along the rocky lake shore. In a whole summer of crawling into every cove and climbing 1,000-ft. cliffs, the trio covered only 60 miles. One night a storm wrecked their boat. The others gave up but Campbell stayed, got another boat and went on alone. Ten miles farther on, at a place called Alona Bay, his Geiger counter buzzed wildly. A two-inch seam of uranium-bearing pitchblende stood out on the shoreline rock. Said Campbell: "I suddenly wanted to shout to the whole world."

Campbell stayed quiet long enough to stake 30 claims. Another prospector, Norbert Miller of Toronto, saw him staking, guessed what was up. As the word spread along what prospectors call "the moccasin trail," the rush started. In no time 500 claims had been staked around Campbell's. When Campbell's ore samples showed a 60% content of radioactive mineral and 99% of it uranium (10% is considered pay dirt), the boom went skyhigh.

Last week, government atomic experts were hoping it would all turn out to be as good as it looked. The new find is only two miles from a highway, and is right on the line of traffic down the Great Lakes, much handier than distant Eldorado, in the Northwest Territories, Canada's only proved source of uranium. Toronto investors were willing to bet big money that the new strike was the real thing. By week's end, shares in Campbell's syndicate, which he peddled last spring for $25 apiece, were bringing bids of $1,000. Prospector Campbell and his backers were not selling.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.