Cdn Royalties stretches Mequillon

Drilling along the northeastern strike extension of the Lac Mequillon nickel-copper deposit in Ungava, Que., has traced the known mineralization another 100 metres beyond a September resource estimate.

The nickel-copper deposit, held by Canadian Royalties (CZZ-T), is now believed to have a strike length of about 800 metres, based on new intersections 200-400 metres northeast of a conceptual pit limit used in the resource calculation. The estimate put the size of the inferred resource at 1.4 million tonnes grading 0.7% nickel, 0.9% copper and 0.04% cobalt, plus 0.65 gram platinum, 2.18 grams palladium and 0.9 gram gold per tonne, but blocked out only the 300-metre strike length of the deposit, for which reliable drill data was then available.

Since the calculation, several holes have intersected more mineralization on the northeastern extension of the deposit. In the most recent results, six drill holes all intersected significant widths of mainly net-textured sulphide mineralization.

At the furthest section for which results have been released, drill hole 36 intersected 19 metres grading 0.38% nickel, 0.53% copper, 0.26 gram platinum and 1.24 grams palladium per tonne, with cobalt and gold credits. Hole 37, drilled from the same collar, intersected 8.5 metres of sulphide mineralization grading 0.39% nickel, 0.47% copper, 0.36 gram platinum and 1.15 grams palladium per tonne.

Holes closer in showed higher grades over longer core lengths, including a 51-metre intersection in hole 35, which ran 0.77% nickel, 1.07% copper, 0.65 gram platinum, 2.18 gram palladium, and 0.92 gram gold per tonne. Other holes intersected zones 23 to 46.5 metres in core length with grades similar to the resource grade.

Another hole, 200 metres farther northeast, for which assays have not been received, also intersected disseminated to network-textured sulphide mineralization.

The drill sections are spaced at 100-metre intervals, so continuity between them can only be inferred. The mineralization is geologically uniform, though, suggesting that the inferred continuity is reasonable.

Canadian Royalties has finished its 2004 drill program on Mequillon, for 79 holes in total, and expects to have full results around the end of the year. Material from Mequillon and from Royalties’ two other Ungava nickel-copper deposits, Mesamax and Expo, is undergoing metallurgical testing, with results expected on about the same schedule.