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Digging holes, building a fortune.


In his first slide presentation as president of FNX Mining FNX Mining Company Inc. TSX: FNX is a Toronto, Ontario based company that produces and explores for nickel, copper, platinum, palladium, gold and cobalt in the Sudbury Basin, Ontario, Canada.  Company, Terry MacGibbon made it clear to all that his goal was to build the next mid-tier Canadian mining company.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"We've accomplished the objective," says MacGibbon. "We have two mines in production, we're going to put two more in production, we've got a great discovery at Levack, significant cash flow and over a billion dollars in market capitalization Market Capitalization

A measure of a public company's size. Market capitalization is the total dollar value of all outstanding shares. It's calculated by multiplying the number of shares times the current market price. This term is often referred to as market cap.
."

FNX and MacGibbon have developed the template that other aspiring junior exploration companies want to follow.

By employing some aggressive and innovative techniques in finding high-grade deposits next to old mines, the company has revived five dormant Inco properties in the Sudbury Basin The Sudbury Basin, also known as Sudbury Structure, is the second largest known impact crater or astrobleme on Earth, and a major geologic structure in Ontario, Canada.

The basin is located on the Canadian Shield in the city of Greater Sudbury, Ontario.
 and catapulted the company into elite status as the Sudbury's third largest miner behind Inco and Falconbridge.

Just four years ago, FNX emerged as the winner in an Inco auction of some of their mothballed assets and poured $30 million into exploration to advance the properties and provide Inco with mill feed.

"When we bid on the Inco properties, we had one employee, myself, and our share price was 50 cents and our market capitalization was $8 million. Today, our share price is around $14, we have a market cap of over $1 billion, we have over $200 million in the bank and zero debt.

"In base metal mining, there (are) only three companies in Canada with a larger cap than us."

With 50 employees on the payroll, FNX expects to grow to 350 by year's end when they inherit some management and technical personnel from their former development partner, Dynatec.

"It went as well as I could have ever hoped," says MacGibbon, who was recognized for his industry leadership at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada annual gala last March by taking home the Viola MacMillan Developer's Award for demonstrating leadership in the management and financing of mining exploration.

The company's success is no big surprise to MacGibbon.

He started out as an Inco geologist in a 30-year career that took him around the world as the company's head of international exploration.

But he always felt the Sudbury Basin held the most prime deposits.

"I was very optimistic op·ti·mist  
n.
1. One who usually expects a favorable outcome.

2. A believer in philosophical optimism.



op
. I felt the exploration potential was excellent and there was near-term mining potential to put these deposits back into production fairly quickly, and that's exactly what we've done."

MacGibbon says Sudbury's mining infrastructure makes it an exploration magnet for people in the industry.

"The Sudbury Basin is, by far, the best mining camp in the entire world. It has produced nickel for over 125 years and in the last 20 years it also has produced ore from these very profitable copper, platinum-palladium and gold footwall foot·wall  
n. Geology
1. The mass of rock underlying a mineral deposit in a mine.

2. The underlying block of a fault having an inclined fault plane.
 deposits.

This year, FNX has expanded its land position almost eight-fold with the acquisition of all the Aurora Platinum Corporation properties, including eight kilometres of very prospective and relatively under-explored footwall rocks behind the historic Falconbridge Mine.

In October, they acquired the remaining 25 per cent stake in their Sudbury joint venture from Dynatec and assumed full control of their Sudbury assets as both exploration and mine operators.

Earlier this year, they made a major high grade mineral discovery in the underexplored footwall rocks behind their Levack Mine property and now have six drills "going full blast" on four high grade zones, says MacGibbon.

MacGibbon says modern geological concepts and cutting edge technology has helped pinpoint new deposits.

Such innovations include the advent of new breakthrough technologies like bore hole geophysics, UTEM (University of Toronto Research at the University of Toronto has been responsible for the world's first electronic heart pacemaker, artificial larynx, single-lung transplant, nerve transplant, artificial pancreas, chemical laser, G-suit, the first practical electron microscope, the first cloning of T-cells,  electro-magnetic survey), and Radio Imaging Method (RIM), which has been a huge exploration tool over the last 10 years.

"That's been evident in looking into the footwall rocks, which aren't as well explored as the nickel contact areas."

MacGibbon says developing the Levack footwall to its fullest potential is among his personal goals for the future.

"It would give me a great deal of pleasure to go into Sudbury, make a brand new discovery and bring it to production."

www.fnxmining.com

RELATED ARTICLE: Shaking up the North

This month in Northern Ontario Business Northern Ontario Business is a Canadian magazine, which publishes monthly in Greater Sudbury, Ontario. The magazine covers business news and issues in Northern Ontario.  we profile five of the top movers and shakers Shakers, popular name for members of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, also called the Millennial Church. Members of the movement, who received their name from the trembling produced by religious emotion, were also known as Alethians.  in the region. Whether they are finding ore where it wasn't before, creating dozens of jobs through a restaurant chain or leading by example, they have all left their mark on the Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is the part of the province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron (including Georgian Bay), the French River and Lake Nipissing.

Northern Ontario has a land area of 802,000 km² (310,000 mi²) and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it
 economy. FNX Mining president Terry MacGibbon is featured here on Page 1, but don't miss Fort Frances Fort Frances, town (1991 pop. 8,891), SW Ont., Canada, on Rainy River, opposite International Falls, Minn. It is chiefly a lumbering center with sawmills and a pulp and paper factory. Tourism is also an important industry, with abundant fishing and hunting nearby.  Councillor and Grow Bonds proponent Tannis Drysdale and the heart and soul of the 5th Wheel Training Institute, Louise Philbin, on Page 5. The founder and figurehead figurehead, carved decoration usually representing a head or figure placed under the bowsprit of a ship. The art is of extreme antiquity. Ancient galleys and triremes carried rostrums, or beaks, on the bow to ram enemy vessels.  of Greater Sudbury's biggest residential developer, Dalron boss Ron Arnold Ron Arnold (born August 8, 1937) has been the Executive Vice-President of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise since 1984. He is widely considered the "Father of the Wise Use Movement",[1][2] , gives some insight into his success on Page 6, and chain restaurant baron Mark Torchia illustrates how to make a "fast" buck on page 7.

By IAN ROSS Ian Ross is the name of:
  • Ian Ross (playwright) (born 1968 in McCreary, Manitoba), a Métis playwright
  • Ian Ross (football manager) (born 26 November 1947 in Glasgow), a footballer for Liverpool and Aston Villa and manager of Huddersfield Town
 

Northern Ontario Business
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No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
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Article Details
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Title Annotation:FNX Mining Company Inc.'s Terry MacGibbon
Author:Ross, Ian
Publication:Northern Ontario Business
Geographic Code:1CANA
Date:Dec 1, 2005
Words:805
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