Of Mines ...

After lengthy negotiations and the unanimous approval of the Advisory Committee on Investment Objectives, the College has sold exploration and mining rights on a 512-acre tract in West Corinth, Vt., to two Canadian firms.

The acreage, bequeathed to the College in 1922 by the late Orson Clement, in memory of his brother Martin, a member of the Class of 1866, is part of a geological feature running through Vermont and into New Hampshire where copper was mined extensively in the past.

A spokesman for the Montreal consulting firm which will explore the tract's potential said that technological advances have since made feasible efficient shaft mining with minimum disruption of surface area.

If on-site exploration, expected to take at east a year, indicates an adequate lode beneath the property - a one in a thousand chance - site preparation and actual mining operations would be carried on by a Toronto company, party to the agreement. or an American subsidiary set up for the purpose. Mining would not begin until 1976 at the earliest.

The contract with the two firms, college officials stress, stipulates full compliance with all state and federal laws including Vermont's land-use and development regulations, considered among the stifFest environmental laws in the country. The companies have agreed to take all reasonable measures to minimize environmental impact of entrance and exit roads, mining operations, and transport of ore, in the event mining proves feasible, and to use local labor as far as possible. The mining company has also accepted a firm prohibition against open pit mining.

The Committee on Investment Objectives, formed two years ago to advise the Trustees on social and public issues relevant to investments, has endorsed the agreement by unanimous vote.

When Nature forgets to snow before Carnival, it's nice to have a king-size snow blowerhandy. Here the golf-course ski jump gets a lofty treatment.