Exploration and deposit appraisal spending intentions for Manitoba are estimated to be a record $135.8 million for 2008, representing a 32% increase from the $102.6 million spent in 2007.
Manitoba’s mining and mineral exploration industry has thrived over the past five years due to historically high base metal prices, but the global economic crisis, adverse financial markets and dropping metal prices created challenges for the industry in the second half of 2008.
Base Metals
Crowflight Minerals continued surface and underground development of the Bucko Lake nickel mine, near Wabowden, throughout 2008. Commissioning of the mill started in September and production of the first concentrate began in December. Work is ongoing to achieve full production for which the base-case scenario calls for 1,000 tonnes per day to produce 11.1 million lbs. nickel per year.
Crowflight announced that drilling at the former-producing Manibridge mine, south of Wabowden, resulted in the discovery of two nickel zones situated within 400 metres of past production. One of the zones returned an intersection of 16.75 metres of 1.38% nickel. The project is a joint venture with Pure Nickel.
Drilling was also carried out at the M11A and Halfway Lake nickel zones, north of Wabowden, which successfully expanded the resource base.
Vale Inco plans to invest about $120 million into new automated technology for its nickel refinery in Thompson. New leading-edge automated cranes and electric transfer cars will replace manual labour involving the handling of heavy slabs of nickel cathodes. The project is expected to be finished by 2011.
Exploration drilling by Vale Inco near its Thompson mines has demonstrated significant potential for open-pit mining of two new deposits, the Thompson 1-C and 1-D surface zones. Drilling projects are also returning encouraging results at depth at both the Thompson and Birchtree mines in efforts to locate new zones of nickel mineralization near existing infrastructure.
HudBay Minerals continues to advance its Lalor zinc discovery, near Snow Lake, with up to 6 diamond- drills active on the property. A National Instrument 43-101-compliant resource estimate released at the end of August determined Lalor contains indicated resources of 3.4 million tonnes of 8.82% zinc, 0.71% copper plus significant silver and gold values. Inferred resources currently stand at 13.2 million tonnes of 8.19% zinc and 0.7% copper.
In January 2009, HudBay announced the discovery of a gold zone adjacent to and separate from the main zinc-rich sulphide mineralization, which could offer Lalor a distinct mining horizon with credits derived primarily from gold. Drilling continues in an effort to upgrade the inferred mineral resources.
Independent Nickel continued drilling to upgrade the reserve base of the past-producing Lynn Lake nickel mine. A prefeasibility study released in November 2007 concluded the project could have demonstrably positive economics at a production rate of 3,000 tonnes per day. The company was drilling a new zone of mineralization discovered in the spring located close to a shared boundary with Western Areas. In mid-August, Victory Nickel made an unsolicited takeover bid for Independent Nickel. In early 2009 the acquisition and amalgamation of Independent with Victory was finished.
Western Areas is conducting nickel exploration on the EL mine property in Lynn Lake. Drilling at the Melville prospect (near a shared boundary with Independent Nickel) encountered a significant new nickel-copper zone that appears to lie inside Independent’s claim boundary. Western Areas intends to further test the zone to see if it extends onto its ground, as well as investigate other anomalies in the vicinity.
VMS Ventures announced in October 2007 that it had discovered a significant zone of copper-zinc mineralization at its Reed Lake property. Since that time the company has drilled over 60 holes with many returning wide intervals of significant copper and zinc grades. For example, assays from drillhole RD-08-51 returned 97.21 metres of 2.08% copper and 0.07% zinc, including a 10.7-metre intersection of 6.86% copper and 0.23% zinc. Some intersections also contain significant gold and silver credits. Recent encouraging borehole geophysics suggest the deposit remains open in the undrilled area to the southwest.
A winter drill program by Victory Nickel at the Minago deposit north of Grand Rapids was successful in finding continuity of nickel mineralization at depth beneath the large, open-pit resource. Significant results included 47.8 metres of 1.3% nickel in a 623.5- metre intercept of 0.36% nickel. A feasibility study for the open-pit portion of the project is in progress and should be done in the first quarter of 2009. Minago’s measured and indicated nickel resource estimate was recently revised to 54.2 million tonnes of 0.52% nickel.
Pure Nickel completed a versatile time-domain electromagnetic (VTEM) airborne survey and a 15-hole drill program at its William Lake property, north of Grand Rapids. The drill program tested nickel-bearing zones previously identified by Falconbridge. Drilling was completed on five zones and the company says that a significant mineralized zone was discovered. The most significant hole on the new zone intersected a sulphidic iron-formation containing massive sulphide intervals, which averaged 0.91% nickel over 12.15 metres.
Murgor Resources conducted drilling at its Hudvam and Wim copper-zinc projects, which are under option from HudBay. At the Wim deposit near Snow Lake, Murgor claims that drilling in 2008 has upgraded the resource estimate by 1-2.5 million tonnes. In 2007, a NI 43-101-compliant resource estimate concluded that Wim contains inferred resources of 2.06 million tonnes of 1.92% copper and 1.65 grams gold per tonne. At the Hudvam property near Flin Flon, a new NI 43-101 resource estimate based on recent drilling has increased the gold resource by 40% and boosted the indicated resource to 854,076 tonnes based on a 2% copper- equivalent cutoff.
Halo Resources is exploring its large Sherridon and area property package, northeast of Flin Flon. The project contains a combination of mature and grassroots base metals and gold prospects including four historic copper-zinc deposits: Cold Lake, Bob Lake, Lost Lake and Jungle Lake. Halo has had NI 43-101-compliant resource estimates completed for all four of the deposits and, incorporating all four, they contain total Indicated resources of 3.1 million tonnes of 1% copper, 0.91% zinc plus precious metal credits. The calculation does not include results of recent drilling at Bob Lake.
Rockcliff Resources completed geophysics and drill programs on a number of its properties in the Snow Lake area. The large property portfolio contains some previously discovered deposits under option from HudBay. Initial drilling began in the winter at the Kof and Sylvia zones and intersected multiple sulphide zones containing significant copper and zinc values.
An initial 27-hole drill program at the Rail property identified the source of several untested geophysical targets and extended the strike and depth of the copper-rich mineralization of the historic Rail Lake deposit. Summer drilling resulted in the discovery of a new zone, which returned 6.09 metres of 3.38% copper and 0.27% zinc.
Troymet Exploration completed an 8-hole drilling program at the junior’s McClarty Lake project southwest of Snow Lake. Drilling identified two laterally continuous zones of massive sulphides. A hole from the lower zone intersected 15.3 metres of 3.46% zinc and is locally enriched in silver and gold. Geophysical surveys suggest that there may be additional sulphide lenses associated with the alteration system that hosts the mineralized zones discovered to date.
Southeast of Flin Flon, Copper Reef Mining completed an airborne VTEM survey and drilling at its Mink Narrow
s property. Drilling was highlighted by a 10.21-metre intersection of 3.66% copper from the Copper Reef deposit. Drilling expanded the known mineralization as well as helped to confirm that the upper east portion of the deposit is actually a separate lens that remains open at depth and to the east.
Wildcat Exploration completed airborne geophysical and ground induced-polarization (IP) surveys at its Reed Lake property. The property has the potential to host volcanogenic massive-sulphide deposits in the north portion, while the south contains a layered mafic-ultramafic intrusive complex, which is prospective for platinum group metals. Geological mapping and ground work on geophysical targets were completed in the summer.
In southeastern Manitoba, Mustang Minerals has released the results of a positive prefeasibility study on the Maskwa nickel deposit east of Lac du Bonnet. The study incorporated a proven and probable open-pit reserve totalling 7.11 million tonnes grading 0.64% nickel and 0.13% copper. Work is under way to support the completion of a feasibility study. More drilling of new targets near the Maskwa deposit is planned for this winter.
Marathon PGM conducted a 38- hole resource-definition drilling program on its Ore Fault and Bird River properties, east of Lac du Bonnet. Multiple lenses of massive sulphides have been intersected at both the Ore Fault and Page (Bird River) zones, including 15 metres grading 1.71% nickel at Ore Fault and 6.55 metres grading 1.65% nickel at Page. The Ore Fault North zone consists of an upper zone of nickel-copper mineralization and lower zinc-copper-silver zone.
Marathon recently released NI 43-101-compliant resource estimates for both zones. The project is a joint venture with Gossan Resources.
Precious Metals
Carlisle Goldfields began a second phase of drilling of 20-25 holes at the past-producing MacLellan mine in Lynn Lake in February. In May, an initial NI 43-101-compliant resource estimate was released stating MacLellan contains measured and indicated resources of 932,000 tonnes grading 6.81 grams gold per tonne and 11.4 grams silver. If it finds sufficient resources, Carlisle plans to dewater the mine and conduct a feasibility study.
Garson Gold continues to drill to define additional resources at the New Britannia mine property in Snow Lake. Efforts are focused on the No. 3 zone west of the New Britannia mine as well as at the main mine itself. Garson is looking at the feasibility of reopening the mine using additional ore from the No. 3 zone. A recently updated NI 43-101-compliant resource estimate significantly boosted the No. 3 zone’s indicated resource to 394,000 tonnes of 6.72 grams gold per tonnne and another 575,000 tonnes are in the inferred category. A scoping study to determine the capital cost of reopening the mine and mill is ongoing.
Tribune Uranium conducted a 13-hole drill program at its Reed Lake project southwest of Snow Lake. The purpose of the program was to verify historic drilling by HudBay Minerals, which had encountered significant gold values. Tribune’s drilling identified multiple sections of gold-bearing mineralization with the best assay returning 5.79 metres of 12.84 grams gold per tonne.
Rolling Rock Resources reported in January 2008 that additional drilling since 2006 had increased the inferred resource for the Monument Bay project to 4.9 million tonnes of 6.01 grams gold pet tonne, an increase of 35% in contained ounces. The company has embarked on a scoping study to define mining economics and evaluate the potential of putting the deposit into production. Rolling Rock also completed a drill program at its Domain gold project near Oxford House, which returned encouraging results.
In southeastern Manitoba, San Gold reported discovering multiple gold-bearing zones, about 1.5 km northeast of the Rice Lake mine. Referred to as the Hinge zone, drilling to date has discovered at least four sub-parallel veins and numerous uncorrelated breccia zones within 100 to 300 metres of surface. A drill hole from Hinge No. 4 returned 6.3 metres of 85.1 grams gold per tonne (2.49 oz. per short ton). Deep underground drilling below the working levels at the Rice Lake mine discovered a high-grade zone and extended the downdip extension of the high-grade “96” vein. An early hole on the newly discovered zone returned 2.7 metres of 31.8 grams gold. Recent exploration drilling for the extension of the “C” vein has enMANITOBA countered numerous new high-grade, gold-bearing zones at depth.
Wildcat Exploration conducted drill programs at its Poundmaker and Jeep properties in the Rice Lake Belt. Airborne geophysical and ground IP surveys were also conducted at Jeep to look at the potential mineralized shear zones. Summer sampling and/or geological mapping programs were conducted at the Jeep, Mable and Garner Lake properties.
Harvest Gold conducted a 9-hole drill program at its Lesavage North project located east of Bissett. The company tested mineralized zones encountered in previous drill programs as well as new geochemical and geophysical anomalies.
Assay results have yet to be released.
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