Noront tallies high grade estimate at Eagle One

Vancouver – Since the discovery hole at the Double Eagle property in northeast Ontario hit massive sulphide mineralization in September Noront Resources (NOT-V) investors have been anxiously awaiting a resource estimate for the new nickel-copper-platinum group elements project.

The wait is over. On an otherwise quiet July 4 Noront released an initial estimate for Eagle One, the better-explored of two main exploration targets at Double Eagle. Almost 30 drill holes delineated a mantle-derived, ultramafic intrusion that hosts an elongated, steeply-dipping lens of dominantly disseminated sulphides. The disseminated sulphides, in turn, encapsulate a lens of high-grade massive sulphides.

In the indicated category Eagle One hosts 233,000 tonnes of massive sulphide mineralization grading 6.52% nickel, 3.45% copper, 0.24 gram gold per tonne, 1.94 grams platinum per tonne, 12.21 grams palladium per tonne, and 9.75 grams silver per tonne. The larger envelope of disseminated sulphides comprises 1.6 million tonnes averaging 1.3% nickel, 0.85% copper, 0.14 grams gold, 1 gram platinum, 2.7 grams palladium, and 2.94 grams silver.

The estimate pegged the combined massive and disseminated inferred resources at 1.1 million tonnes grading 2.39% nickel, 1.27% copper, 0.13 gram gold, 1.37 grams platinum, 4.5 grams palladium, and 4.21 grams silver.

Drilling results indicated dip lengths of up to 225 metres, projected onto 200 metres of strike length. The deposit remains open along strike and down dip for further expansion.

And while Noront is actively working to expand the deposit the company’s thoughts are already turning to production. In the news release outlining the resource estimate Noront’s CEO Richard Nemis discussed the possibility of initially shipping unprocessed ore from the high-grade massive sulphide zone to a southern-based concentrator-smelter complex. Cash flow derived from such an operation would then finance construction of an on-site concentrator for the disseminated mineralization.

And a forward-focus on production was also clear from the fact that Noront calculated net smelter royalty estimates for its resource amounts. For example, the 1.8 million tonnes of indicated resource have a net smelter royalty of $515 per tonne, calculated using approximate US dollar three-year trailing average metal prices and a US exchange rate of 90. The company later had to retract the net smelter royalty estimates because the project has not yet seen a scoping-type study.

Noront also had to retract its initial news release title, which was Another windfall for Noront with high grade on initial resource estimates at Eagle One deposit. The reason the Securities Commission demanded the retraction is best explained by Noront itself: “Noront retracts the usage of the word Windfall in its news release title, in that it inadvertently draws potentially undue attention to a lottery style win, rather than the intended reference to Noront’s Windfall Lake property in Northern Quebec.”

The company remained halted at $2.70 after releasing its Eagle One resource estimate. Noront has a 52-week trading range of 29 to $7.42 and has 129.4 million shares issued.

Noront’s discovery at Eagle One kicked off a staking rush around the McFauld’s Lake area. Noront is actively involved in several of the area-play exploration project as a joint-venture partner.

Moreover the property name Double Eagle is justified in late February Noront announced another massive sulphide occurrence 2 km southwest of Eagle One that it appropriately dubbed Eagle Two.

The latest results from Eagle Two have returned significant copper-nickel mineralization from depths exceeding 400 metres. In general terms, the number of mineralized zones encountered increases with depth as does the tenure of sulphide mineralization.

Mineralization containing copper-nickel sulphides has been traced to 350 metres depth; chromitite mineralization to date extends to 400 metres depth. Both zones occupy positions conformable with and near the stratigraphic bottom of a wide peridotite sill, which in turn unconformably overlies a granodiorite older basement rock.

The aim of the current drill program is not to define the lateral or horizontal extent of the zone but rather to follow mineralization to depth in search of a postulated pool of concentrated copper-nickel sulphides lying on the basement rocks, as found at Eagle One.

In a more generalized view, Noront’s Ring of Fire conceptual model turns on the idea that a mantle-derived, highly magmatic ultramafic peridotite intrusion (the Ring of Fire Intrusion or RFI) has been placed along the margin of a regional scale granodiorite pluton, which has been intruded into and caused a doming of the host Sachigo greenstone belt. As such the RFI is situated between a granodiorite footwall and a Sachigo greenstone belt hangingwall. The RFI is magnetically distrinct from both, allowing for easy tracing, and it seems a series of conduits cutting across and through the granodiorite have acted as feeders to the RFI.

Using this model, the Eagle One deposit is interpreted as occurring within a conduit feeder, at some distance from the RFI. The Eagle Two discovery is interpreted as occurring within the throat of the conduit, where it empties into the RFI. Noront’s geologists think the drill results obtained to date at Eagle Two seemingly coalescing finger-style mineralization are consistent with this model, which is why the search is on for a possible feeder conduit that would constitute another Eagle One-type deposit.