Nuinsco resumes drilling — Noranda, Falco pick up ground

The eyes of the junior market are back on Nuinsco Resources (NWI-T) as the company resumes drilling at its Lac Rocher nickel prospect, 100 km northeast of Matagami, Que.

Nuinsco has established its camp and cleared a winter road into the property, where earlier drilling intersected nickel and copper mineralization in a gabbro body (T.N.M., Feb. 8/99). The company shut down its earlier drill program when it became apparent that the equipment it had on the job would not be able to drill to the target depths of future holes. The drill was pulled off the site after coring 61.5 metres that graded an average of 1.69% nickel, including a 3.2-metre section of massive sulphides grading 10.8% nickel.

Armed with three bigger drills, the company was, at presstime, about to begin drill-testing targets down-plunge from the last mineralized intersection. The mineralized zone appears to plunge at about 45, and on the current targets the sulphides are expected to be about 200 metres deep.

Nuinsco has engaged consulting firm Roscoe Postle Associates to set up a secure system for drilling, core-handling and sampling. Nuinsco President Douglas Hume says this will help ensure that the program conforms to the rules proposed by the Mining Standards Task Force (T.N.M., Feb. 8/99). Noting the amount of Internet discussion that has taken place over Nuinsco’s results, he says maintaining security “should help to stop the rumour mills.”

Meanwhile, two major companies have tipped their hand in the Lac Rocher staking rush. Noranda (NOR-T) and Falconbridge (FL-T) both signed deals with Donner Minerals (DML-V), whereby Donner can earn half-interests in properties held by the two companies for cash and exploration funding.

Falco staked 82 sq. km in 24 separate blocks in the area, including three claim groups that tie on to Nuinsco’s ground. Donner can earn the interest by paying Falco $250,000 for acquisition and spending $2 million on exploration over the next two years.

Noranda’s land package was acquired by application, since the block impinges on flooding rights held by Hydro-Quebec. For its interest in the 170-sq.-km area, Donner must make identical payments and work commitments to those on Falconbridge’s ground. Donner is funding the work through a brokered private placement of 7.5 million shares and warrants that will raise $3 million.

Geophysical work will shortly get under way at the Foreurs property, on the southern boundary of the Nuinsco ground. Partners Dumont Nickel (DNI-M) and International Kirkland Minerals (IKI-V), each with 50%, plan to begin drilling in early April to test any magnetic, electromagnetic and induced-polarization anomalies.

Montreal-based Matamec Explorations (mat-m) has now acquired five properties in the Lac Rocher area, including two optioned from Golden Gram Resources (GRA-M), which had held ground in the area since 1997. The two Golden Gram properties are near Storm Lake, in the middle of the Lac Evans greenstone belt, north of the discovery. Matamec is acquiring the interest for $200,000.

Maude Lake Mines (MAU-M) and Sirios Resources (SOI-M) have completed their staking and are awaiting the results of applications covering land inside the Hydro-Quebec caution area. The two companies acquired about 6.7 sq. km in three blocks about 20 km northwest of the Nuinsco prospect, covering geophysical and geochemical anomalies detected in earlier government surveys.

Boreal Exploration (BOR-M) and Azimut Exploration (AZM-M) have cut a deal with locally based prospectors that gives each company a 40% interest in a 26-sq.-km block about 40 km west of the Lac Rocher discovery. The claims cover several magnetic anomalies in sedimentary and mafic-to-ultramafic intrusive rocks, close to lakes where government sediment-sampling programs had turned up elevated concentrations of cobalt and nickel.

Another deal in the area is between NDT Ventures (NDE-V) and Freewest Resources Canada (FWR-T). NDT can earn a half-interest in a 4.3-sq.-km block Freewest staked 10 km southwest of the Nuinsco property. In return, NDT must pay $13,500 in cash and the equivalent of $200 per claim in shares, as well as spend $81,000 on exploration.

International CanAlaska Resources (ICA-V) has picked up a 17-sq.-km block about 7 km north of the Nuinsco property. The property covers two magnetic anomalies that could be unmapped gabbro bodies. Nearby, Prospectors Alliance (pall-c) is assembling ground through a joint venture with Freewest, and another with a private company.

Outside the main Lac Rocher area, International CanAlaska has staked claims surrounding, but not including, a known nickel deposit at Horden Lake, about 100 km northwest of Lac Rocher. Fjordland Minerals (FML-V) and Tanqueray Resources (TQY-A) have bought, for cash and shares, a 21-sq.-km property situated 95 km north of the Nuinsco discovery.

The Horden Lake deposit, once drilled by Inco (N-T), has a resource of 5.6 million tonnes grading 1.41% copper and 0.3% nickel. The prospect acquired by Fjordland and Tanqueray was drilled in the 1970s by the James Bay Development Corp., which found narrow intersections with nickel and copper mineralization.