Hucamp sampling picks up PGEs

Sampling by Hucamp Mines (YHU-V) at the Alexo and Dundonald South properties, about 40 km northeast of Timmins, has returned platinum and palladium values from two known nickel deposits.

Hucamp, which is exploring the two properties under option deals with Outokumpu and Falconbridge (FL-T), is examining the platinum-group potential in the nickel deposits, which are hosted in a komatiite sequence in the Abitibi volcanic belt. Previous work on the properties had concentrated on their potential for nickel-copper deposits, but the recent work has been spurred by increases in the prices of platinum group metals.

Recent stripping where the previusly drilled Dundonald Beach zone meets the surface yielded channel samples with average grades of 4.82% nickel and 1.37 grams combined platinum and palladium per tonne. The zone is part of the Dundonald South nickel deposit, which has a resource (calculated by Falconbridge Nickel in the 1970s) of 500,000 tonnes grading 1.5% nickel down to a vertical depth of 150 metres.

A magnetic survey over the deposit, on a tight, 5-by-50-metre survey grid, shows a magnetic anomaly corresponding to the deposit’s peridotite host rock over a 400-metre strike length.

Hucamp is re-compiling old data from the earlier drill programs and expects to combine them with the recent work to provide drill targets on the deposit for the coming year. The company also plans to carry out down-hole geophysical surveys once the holes are drilled.

The company has $1.5 million in flow-through shares out, and some of that funding must be used by the end of February. Its deals with Falconbridge and Outokumpu oblige it to spend $1 million by the end of September.

On the Alexo property, about 4 km to the north, grab sampling from the surface returned 3.22% nickel, plus 1.7 grams platinum and 0.6 gram palladium per tonne, in komatiite with net-textured sulphides. Historical mining at Alexo (which was in production during the First and Second World Wars) mainly avoided the net-textured material in favour of the massive sulphides.

Hucamp plans to test the extent of the net-textured and disseminated material around the massive body at Alexo, and also to test at depth down-plunge from the main body, an area that has not been previously drilled.