Drill results at the Nico prospect in the Northwest Territories show generally low copper results, yet owner Fortune Minerals (FORM-C) is nevertheless forging ahead with a second round of drilling.
The property lies 170 km northwest of Yellowknife.
Seven of the 10 holes were drilled in the Bowl zone, and these encountered long intersections with copper grades ranging up to 0.46%, plus cobalt and bismuth credits. Some intersections also cut low gold grades. The mineralization is in brecciated rock showing large amounts of hematite and magnetite (iron oxides), with accessory sulphide minerals.
Hole 4 cut 33.4 metres grading 0.14% bismuth and 0.11% cobalt, and a separate 40 metres grading 0.09% bismuth and 0.12% cobalt. The composite grade of a 129-metre length, including those two intervals, was 0.07% bismuth, 0.07% cobalt and 0.05% copper.
Hole 5 intersected a 35.8-metre interval grading 0.17% bismuth and 0.15% cobalt, and another 43.3-metre interval with 0.09% bismuth, 0.06% cobalt, and 0.17% copper. A 366-metre length, including those two intervals, graded 0.09% bismuth, 0.07% cobalt and 0.07% copper.
Hole 6 did not result in appreciable copper values but had an average grade of 0.07% bismuth and 0.06% cobalt, including a 2-metre interval with 0.15% bismuth and 0.31% cobalt. Hole 7 had relatively short intersections — 2 to 4 metres — with bismuth and cobalt mineralization.
Hole 8 showed grades of 0.01% bismuth, 0.03% cobalt and 0.09% copper over 34.4 metres (including some higher-grade sections) at shallower levels.
Farther down the hole, three intersections (2-3.7 metres long) carried copper in the 0.1% range, and some low-grade bismuth-cobalt mineralization was deeper still.
Hole 9 had an average grade of 0.2% copper over 141.3 metres, including an interval grading 0.46%, without appreciable bismuth or cobalt. Hole 10 cut mineralized intersections and, over a total 89.4 metres, graded an average 0.04% bismuth and 0.04% cobalt.
Three holes in Fortune’s Summit Peak zone, about 1 km northwest of the Bowl, encountered higher-grade copper mineralization without bismuth or cobalt.
Three intersections in Hole 1, ranging in length from 3.1 to 9.5 metres, had grades of 0.15-0.36% copper. A 28-metre intersection in Hole 2 graded 0.22% copper, and included 6 metres grading 0.63% copper. In Hole 3, a dozen metres of mineralized material grading 0.17% copper included an
8-metre interval with 0.23% copper.
“I think we’ve got some decent results,” says Robin Goad, Fortune’s president. “The market had higher expectations, but the kind of deposits we are looking for are large, with moderate grades.”
The prospect will be subjected to second phase of drilling after the spring breakup. “We’ve still got our largest gravity anomaly, not yet tested, and the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 zones,” Goad adds. There are also plans to drill more holes into the Bowl zone, based on the recent drill results.
Fortune plans to carry out mapping and induced-polarization surveys on the property and on the adjoining JBG claim group, which is optioned to GMD Resource (GMD-V). Also earmarked for exploration are the properties Fortune has optioned to Avalon Ventures (AVL-V), and the Sue-Dianne property, which Fortune holds under option from Noranda (NOR-T).
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