The summer drill program at the Mazenod Lake property of
The program, which consisted of 22 holes, showed the deposit had a larger near-surface extent than had been assumed, which will bring the stripping ratio down in any proposed pit. Fortune also tested structural extensions of the central core of the deposit, which has relatively higher gold grades. Infill holes in the program largely confirmed earlier estimates of grades and widths.
In the most recent round of drilling, Hole 249 intersected a 10.6-metre core length of mineralization grading 0.43% cobalt and 1 gram gold per tonne. Hole 250 cut 23.4 metres grading 0.24% cobalt and 0.29% bismuth, and a third hole, 252, encountered 0.23% cobalt and 3.6 grams gold over a core length of 15.9 metres.
Prefeasibility work by Strathcona Mineral Services established some economic baselines for the project (T.N.M., June 12/00). Many different resource figures have been calculated for the deposit over the past three years, but the recent work appears to be leaning toward increasing the grade, rather than the tonnage.
Nico has an indicated resource inside the proposed pit outline of 5 million tonnes (diluted) averaging 0.2% cobalt and 0.26% bismuth, plus 0.7 gram gold per tonne, at a cobalt price of US$12.50 per lb. The stripping ratio is 8.6-to-1. A second pit, its design based on a cobalt price of US$17.50 per lb., has a resource of 35.2 million tonnes grading 0.11% cobalt, 0.13% bismuth and 0.6 gram gold, with a stripping ratio of 2.5-to-1.
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