Flag cuts Sudbury-type alteration

Calgary-based Flag Resources (ASE) says preliminary drill results from the Wanapitei anomaly northeast of Sudbury, Ont., indicate that the company’s first hole is enriched with elements associated with Sudbury ores.

Having completed and analyzed the first 1,500 ft. of core from Mackelcan Twp., Flag has found concentrations of up to 4% sodium, 0.2% chromium, 0.08% cobalt and 0.06% nickel in the Huronian sediment cover. Albatization, an alteration type typically associated with the Sudbury nickel deposits, is pervasive throughout the core length.

Since chromium is not usually associated with rocks in the area, Flag says it will re-assay its samples to test for possible contamination. The company believes the results support the interpretation that a mafic igneous intrusion lies beneath the sedimentary cover. The correlation between minerals found in the Wanapitei sediments and elements associated with the Sudbury nickel deposits is also encouraging.

The Wanapitei anomaly, an 80×25-km magnetic and gravity anomaly, is similar in size and geometry to the nearby Sudbury anomaly. The two deposits are often referred to as “twins.”

Flag’s 24,000-acre property straddles the west side of the Wanapitei anomaly. An intensely altered zone with enrichments of gold, copper, nickel, cobalt chromium and platinum group elements has been traced along surface for a strike length of two miles.

By presstime, Flag’s hole had reached 1,900 ft. on its way to a target depth of 3,000 ft. Last year, neighboring Falconbridge drilled a similar deep hole in Sheppard Twp. but was unable to reach the basement rock below the sediment cover.