Mustang grows M2 zone at Mayville

Results from the six holes of a 35-hole drill program by Mustang Minerals (MUM-V, MSMGF-O) on the Mayville copper-nickel property, near Winnipeg, Man., have extended the M2 zone by some 100 metres to the west.

All six of the holes returned copper-nickel intercepts, including two with respectable lengths of plus-1% copper. Hole no. 39 yielding 22 metres (from 146.3 metres down hole) averaging 1.25% copper 0.25% nickel, and 0.02% cobalt. Hole 42 cut 17.7 metres of 1% copper, 0.25% nickel, and 0.02% cobalt.

The remaining holes generally returned slightly lower grades over intervals ranging from few metres to more than 50 metres. Mustang estimates that true widths run around 90% of the reported core widths.

Mustang believes that the narrow intervals of semi-massive and massive sulphides accompanied by base and precious metals suggest the possible pooling higher-grade mineralization at the basal contact of the zone.

Those results are as follows:

• Hole 39 0.3 metre (from 160.4 metres) of 8.5% copper and 7 grams gold, and 0.5 metres (from 167.8 m) of 2.7% nickel and 15.2 grams palladium;
• Hole 46 2.4 metres (from 251.5 m) of 1.55% nickel and 0.75% copper.

In all, the holes have extended the M2 zone to a strike length of 350 metres and a depth of 200 metres. It remains open along strike and at depth. Two drill rigs continue to drill a 1.5-km-long geophysical conductor associated with the zone in an attempt to outline an open-pit bulk-tonnage resource.

Meanwhile, in the lab, preliminary metallurgical work has indicated recoveries of 94% for copper and 90% for nickel via bulk rougher and scavenger flotation. A composite sample running 0.84% copper and 0.28% nickel yielded a copper concentrate grading 33% copper, 5.7 grams palladium, 0.2 gram t platinum and 1.24 grams gold per tonne and a separate nickel-copper concentrate running 9.3% nickel, 9% copper, 5 grams palladium, 0.97 gram platinum and 0.7 gram gold.

Work toward optimizing the flotation process continues.

Looking ahead, Mustang plans to drill test up to 8 geophysical conductors identified elsewhere along the 12-km-long, layered, mafic-to-ultramafic Mayville intrusion. Drilling on the M4 conductor late last year failed to return significant mineralization. The 900-metre-long M5 and 400-metre M6 conductors have yet to be drilled.

The work is part of a larger plan examining potential synergies between M2 ore and that from the company’s Maskwa deposit, 35 km to the south. Maskwa is home to an open-pit indicated resource totalling 5.2 million tonnes running 0.68% nickel and 0.15% copper and an underground indicated resource of 800,000 tonnes at 1.11% nickel and 0.14% copper. The Maskwa deposit is situated on the south limb of the Bird River greenstone belt; M2 is on the north limb.