Vancouver — An ongoing 11,000-metre drill program has uncovered a new zone of nickel laterite mineralization at the Ona-Puma project in northern Brazil.
The zone was encountered between 1 and 49 metres below surface and contains more iron and silica than previously defined prospects.
“We continue to receive results that bode quite well for a significant increase in resources at Puma,” says Canico President Michael Kenyon. “In addition, we now have some encouragement that the silica cap area will yield added resources.”
Highlights of the latest drilling include the following:
q Hole 1077 — 15.5 metres grading 1.67% nickel.
q Hole 1086 — 13.9 metres grading 2.23% nickel.
q Hole 1088 — 29.4 metres grading 2.7% nickel.
q Hole 1098 — 12.5 metres grading 1.61% nickel.
q Hole 1104 — 12.2 metres grading 2.12% nickel.
Situated in Para state, the Puma deposit is part of the 400-sq.-km Ona-Puma property, which hosts a near-surface inferred resource of 50 million tonnes grading 2.3% nickel and 0.09% cobalt using a 1.5% nickel cutoff grade.
The resource consists of three separate targets. The Ona zone covers an 18-by-1-km area, the average thickness of the mineralized laterite being 4.1 metres. Moving 10 km northeast, the Puma West zone extends for 10 km along strike and is also about 1 km wide. The mineralization here is slightly lower-grade but has an average thickness of 5.1 metres. Between the two deposits lies an iron formation. Another 3 km to the northeast is the smallest zone, known as Puma East, which measures 7 km long by 500 metres wide.
Half of Puma West and all of Puma East lie within an indigenous reserve and are not available for development.
“We are about to start drilling on the Ona ridge, where there are also silica cap areas within which previous exploration was restricted,” says Kenyon. “These areas are far more extensive at Ona than at Puma.”
The early results indicate that the zone at Puma West is wider than expected, and with the identification of a new zone, Canico believes there is good potential for increasing tonnage.
“Increases in resources will give us options in scaling the size of production plants in our upcoming feasibility studies,” says Kenyon.
The junior aims to drill 265 holes into Puma before moving on to Ona. More than 400 drill holes are planned for the latter, and overall the company intends to complete 11,000 metres by year-end.
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