Early Lynne relults confirmed by Noranda

There is little doubt that Noranda Exploration has touched on something big at the Lynne project in Wisconsin. As the results from some of the most recent holes confirm, Noranda’s zinc discovery is no one-hole wonder, but a potentially minable massive sulphide body. Moving east and west from the two original discovery holes, Noranda Exploration, a unit of Noranda (TSE), intersected high- grade zinc mineralization in all of the eight holes drilled. Noteworthy intersections include a 34-ft. length grading 18.10% zinc in hole 90-6 and a 240-ft. length grading 12.84% zinc in hole 90-7. All the holes were drilled at angles of 52-63 degrees .

The zone, which dips north at about 45 degrees , shows excellent continuity both downdip and along the 800-ft. strike length that has been delineated to date. “We don’t think we’ll ever have to drill closer than 100 ft.,” said Jim Gibson, manager of evaluations. Noranda is drilling at 200-ft. intervals along strike.

A brecciated rhyolite hosts the sulphide mineralization to a vertical depth of not more than about 400 ft. Within the rhyolite, the mineralization appears to be zoned, beginning with zinc-silver enrichment near the hangingwall, gradually grading into a zinc-rich section in the middle of the zone, and finally showing zinc-copper enrichment closer to the footwall. This zoning explains why the zinc grades seem to fluctuate from hole to hole, Gibson said.

But despite management’s confidence in the new deposit, Noranda may find itself at the mercy of Wisconsin’s powerful environmental watchdogs. Already, the location of each hole on the 10,000 x 10,000-ft. grid must be approved by the Department of Natural Resources. Nearby, at the Flambeau copper deposit, production has been held up by the lengthy permitting process. Gibson said that Kennecott, Flambeau’s owner, has been tied up for six weeks in a public hearing that was scheduled to last only a week.

But Gibson is philosophical about the environmental problem. “You take the risk and hope for the best,” he told The Northern Miner at his office in downtown Toronto. And, at least for now, Noranda has no intention of slowing down. “We rank this as number one in our stable of exploration and development projects.”

With 15 holes complete, Gibson says the company plans to accelerate exploration efforts on its main target — a 1,200-ft. geophysical anomaly that stretches from east to west along the property. In September, another drill rig will be moved on-site to complete definition drilling along the 800-ft. strike length that has already been delineated. At the same time, some deeper holes will be drilled to the north to test downdip extensions. Because of the wet ground conditions to the east, however, the drillers will have to wait until freeze-up to test eastern strike extensions. Results from the first 10 holes include: Width Zn Cu Pb Ag Au Hole (ft.) (%) (%) (%) (oz./ton) (oz./ton) 90.1 128.0 22.71 0.64 2.95 1.04 0.011 90.2 379.7 8.54 0.26 2.11 4.79 0.013 90.3 68.0 8.99 0.08 2.66 1.53 0.006 217 5.37 0.70 1.88 2.71 0.020 90.4 36.0 1.64 0.12 0.92 1.40 0.003 15.0 5.84 0.10 0.94 0.62 0.002 90.5 5.0 9.46 0.04 0.43 0.53 0.028 90.6 34.0 18.10 0.16 5.36 3.49 0.064 43.0 1.70 0.07 1.83 2.16 0.008 49.3 2.88 1.08 0.59 2.18 0.016 90-7 240.0 12.84 0.67 2.18 1.95 0.004 90-8 71.0 14.16 0.11 1.96 0.99 0.002 90-9 348.0 6.71 8.36 2.31 5.26 0.007