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Hier der zweite Beitrag zum Nachlesen!!! Knight and Anglo American advance Quebec nickel play THE Cape Smith Belt in northern Quebec has emerged as one of the most prospective areas in the world to discover new sulphide nickel deposits and with the price of the metal hitting historic highs, partners Anglo American Exploration (Canada) Ltd and Canadian-listed Knight Resources have a signifi cant advantage with an exceptional land package and a robust drill programme slated for 2007. Back in 2002, the Canadian exploration division of mining giant Anglo American staked an initial package of contiguous claims on the western end of the Cape Smith Belt known as the West Raglan Project. An aptly named project, given that Xstrata’s Raglan nickel mine is located 90 km to the east of the eastern boundary of the property. It is reported that the Raglan mine hosts approximately 32 Mt averaging 2.8% nickel and 0.8% copper with signifi cant PGM and cobalt. “The known nickel deposits in the Cape Smith Belt occur in two diff erent settings – the Raglan Formation at the base of the Chukotat Group, and the Delta Horizon in the underlying Povungnituk Group,” explains Knight Resources CEO Harvey Keats. “The nickel deposits on Xstrata’s Raglan property stretch across 55 km, east-west, and consist of clusters of discrete, sulphide lenses associated with ultramafi c bodies at the base of the Chukotat Group.” It did not take long for Mr Keats to recognise that the Anglo American property hosts a strike length of 65 km of the Raglan Formation, so in early 2003, Knight entered into an agreement to earn a 49% interest in the 720 km2 property. “I was absolutely intrigued by the fact that there had been no drilling done, nor had there been any large modern airborne survey done over the area,” continues Mr Keats. “I found it hard to believe that the Raglan Formation rocks at West Raglan would not contain nickel sulphides similar to Raglan.” So, with Knight on board, Anglo American kicked off the 2003 programme by fl ying the project area with its proprietary deep-penetrating Spectrem airborne electromagnetic and magnetic system. High priority targets were identifi ed, which were followed up by ground surveys. In the end, it did not take long for the partners to fi nd success. “Surface sampling uncovered high-grade massive sulphides and net-textured sulphides in boulders at several sites along a 1.6 km portion of a 3 km-long conductive trend, called the Frontier area,” says Mr Keats. “The best grab sample assayed 3.41% nickel, 2.91% copper and 0.09% cobalt, plus 0.84 g/t platinum and 3.3 /t palladium.” Defi ning the orientation and extent of the mineralisation is the key to unlocking the economic potential of the area as outcrop exposure is limited and sulphide lenses vary in size and shape. Lenses found to date range anywhere from a few metres to tens of metres thick and with a strike length of tens of metres to 200 m. “We were really lucky we found gossan and sulphide boulders on surface and that we found the source of those boulders in the fi rst drill programme,” says Mr Keats. “We are in the Raglan Formation at the base of Chukotat Group, and we have the same type of sulphides with the same nickel concentration as those found at Raglan.” Half of the fi rst 16 holes drilled in the Frontier area returned exceptional nickel-copper-platinum group metal values, including a 0.67 m section of massive sulphides that ran 11.83% nickel, 2.03% copper and 0.23% cobalt, plus 0.91 g/t platinum and 5.6 g/t palladium. The results were truly impressive for a fi rst round of drilling but Mother Nature has a way of keeping geologists humble as the partners soon learned. “As it turns out, some of the early holes were not well orientated relative to the geometry of the mineralisation,” says Mr Keats. “For example, we aimed the fi rst hole at Frontier East in a southerly direction beneath mineralised boulders on surface based on the orientation of the stratigraphy in the Raglan mine area, which dips moderately to the north. It soon became obvious that the Frontier sequence is locally overturned and dips steeply to the south, resulting in the fi rst hole being drilled at a low angle to the stratigraphy.” After gathering more information on the orientation of the geology, follow-up holes at Frontier East were reengineered and successfully intersected interesting grades such as 15.5 m grading 1.2% nickel, 0.81% copper and 0.04% cobalt, plus 0.28 g/t platinum and 1.03 g/t palladium in one, and 8.4 m of 2.32% nickel, 1.4% copper and 0.08% cobalt, as well as 0.38 g/t platinum and 1.49 g/t palladium in the other. But the best results from the initial programme came from Frontier Central, where a boulder was tested with three holes from two sites spaced 100 m apart. Designed to test boulders that ran between 1.9% and 3.4% nickel, hole 14 intersected a near-surface 8.7 m of net-textured sulphides grading 3.26% nickel, 1.4% copper and 0.06% cobalt, plus 0.33 g/t gold, 0.95 g/t platinum and 3.22 g/t palladium. A step-out 100 m to the west cut a 0.8 m interval of massive sulphides grading 7.15% nickel, 3.56% copper and 0.16% cobalt, plus 1.21 g/t platinum and 2.99 g/t palladium, followed down-hole by 5.1 m of massive and net-textured sulphides averaging 4.16% nickel, 1.64% copper and 0.09% cobalt, plus 0.6 g/t platinum and 2.48 g/t palladium. In 2004 and 2005, Anglo American and Knight continued to put the geological puzzle together drilling a total of 89 holes throughout the property. While the results were generally lower grades and, in many cases, narrower widths than the initial round of testing, Anglo American and Knight recognised the nickel concentration, or ‘nickel tenor’, was generally high, especially at Frontier. “The nickel tenor in the sulphides alone, as opposed to the nickel grade in the whole rock, was higher at Frontier Central and South than most of the holes at Frontier East,” Mr Keats continues. “The higher nickel tenors suggest potential for relatively high nickel grades even in disseminated sulphides.” So, while the field programme continued to discover sulphide mineralisation in ultramafic rocks on surface in new areas as far as 20 km west and 27 km east of the Frontier area, Anglo American and Knight continued to focus on unlocking the potential of the Frontier area. “By 2005, we had earned our 49% interest in the property and since the geological model was evolving nicely with each drill programme, we elected to fund our share of the exploration rather than have Anglo American continue on its own,” says Mr Keats. “We are outlining signifi cant zones of mineralisation in the right location.” This move is looking to be very prudent for Knight shareholders because the geological picture was about to become a lot clearer. “The 2006 programme resulted in a breakthrough in the three dimensional understanding of the complex geological picture in the Frontier area,” Mr Keats says. “Discrete mineralised lenses in restricted troughs at the base of steeply dipping ultramafi c units have been outlined near surface at Century, Frontier South and Frontier Central. This is precisely the geological setting at Raglan.” At the Century zone, a trough has been outlined at the base of a steeply north-dipping, and north-facing, upper ultramafi c unit. Two holes in the centre of the trough have returned 2.16% nickel over 7.8 m and 1.39% nickel over 17.85 m, including 2.58% nickel over 5.25 m. “The best intersections are in portions of a westerly plunging trough where the plunge fl attens, defi ning a confi ned three dimensional trough into which magmatic sulphides accumulated,” says Mr Keats. A second, lower ultramafi c unit has been intersected below the upper ultramafi c unit in the eastern portion of Century. 3D magnetic inversion indicates that the ultramafi c continues to the west suggesting that the lower ultramafi c is plunging westward. This lower ultramafic unit has yielded 3.37% nickel over 1.4 m. Meanwhile, the pieces of the puzzle also started to come together in the Frontier South area where an irregular, westerly trending mineralised trough has been outlined. “The trough occurs at the base of a steeply northdipping and north-facing upper ultramafic unit,” continues Mr Keats. “The trough has a strike length of approximately 100 m and a dip length of 50-100 m with the best intersection to date of 3.04% nickel over 14.75 m. At Frontier Central, four additional holes confi rmed that the whole ultramafic complex in this area is steeply south-dipping and north-facing. “Based on the 2006 drill results, the West Raglan technical team greatly increased its understanding of the geometry of the mineralisation,” states Mr Keats. “The new interpreted geometry and orientation makes complete sense. Based on our new understanding an 8,000 m programme is planned for 2007 at a budgeted cost of C$4.5 million, to be funded 51% by Anglo and 49% by Knight.” “The objective of the 2007 programme will be to discover new lenses down-dip and along strike at the base of numerous mapped and interpreted ultramafic units throughout the Frontier area,” concludes Mr Keats. “We are extremely excited about the prospect of putting together the pieces of the West Raglan geological puzzle, hopefully leading to an economic discovery for our shareholders.” |
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| aus der Diskussion: | Knight Metals ehem. Knight Resources - Gute Bohrergebnisse |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | Viper3x (31.03.07 16:31:15) |
| Beitrag: | 3,582 von 12,282 (ID:28600733) |
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