Drills turning at South Voisey’s Bay

Donner Minerals (DML-V) and Teck (TEK-T) have commenced their long-anticipated drilling program at the South Voisey’s Bay project in Labrador.

Three drill rigs are currently operating under the field supervision of Teck, which is acting as general contractor during the 1998 field season.

Donner reports that preliminary drilling results from the first two holes on the Northern Abitibi Mining (NAI-V) joint venture intersected mineralization at the base of the olivine gabbro.

Hole 98-98 hit 19.5 metres of mineralization, including a 1.2-metre interval of semi-massive sulphide mineralization. The hole has reached a depth of 181 metres and is currently drilling through the footwall gneiss.

Hole 98-99 intersected 8.5 metres of mineralization and has since reached a depth of 191 metres within the footwall gneiss. Both drills will test about 100 metres of the footwall gneiss before stopping.

The program was designed to follow-up the discovery last year of nickel-copper-cobalt mineralization on Donner-Northern Abitibi ground.

Donner is the acting operator and holds a 50% interest in the property, as does Northern Abitibi. Teck can earn half of any of Donner’s property interests in Labrador.

The last hole drilled on the Donner-Northern Abitibi property in 1997 hit 15.7 metres of sulphide mineralization grading 1.13% nickel, 0.78% copper and 0.2% cobalt, starting at a depth of 184.3 metres. The hole hit basement gneiss at 200 metres and was ended at 400 metres.

The third rig is drilling what has been dubbed the southern gabbro at a currently undisclosed location. Donner and Cypress Minerals (CYP-V) jointly hold the majority of claims that cover the southern gabbro.

Cypress’s stated intention is to deepen hole 97-79, which was stopped in gabbro last year because of insufficient drill capacity. The hole returned the thickest sections of gabbro found in the South Voisey’s Bay area to date, and Teck believes that the property could host the feeder zone for the gabbro unit. Pulse-electromagnetic surveys conducted within hole 97-79 revealed two off-hole anomalies and one in-hole anomaly.

A total of $2.7 million has been allocated for exploration on the Cypress property. Donner holds a 67.5% interest and Cypress holds the remainder.

The budget for the overall South Voisey’s Bay exploration program totals $14.8 million and is divided into two phases. Phase one consists of gravity and other geophysical surveys combined with 22,500 metres of diamond drilling budgeted at $9.2 million. Phase two, which is contingent on positive results from phase one, will consist of another 22,500 metres of drilling budgeted at $5.6 million.