Inco seeks pgm in Sept-Iles, Que.

Toronto-based Inco (TSE) has taken the town of Sept-Iles, Que., by surprise after con-firming reports that it is looking for platinum group metals in the area.

Contractors acting on behalf of the big nickel miner recently staked 52,000 acres of ground covering a layered mafic complex that extends underneath Sept-Iles and out to the St. Lawrence River.

Airborne geophysical surveys completed this summer indicate that the complex is composed of anorthosite and gabbros and bears many similarities to the Busweld platinum belt in South Africa. Measuring 80 km in diameter, the complex could be upwards of five kilometres deep.

But reports that Sept-Iles’ 26,000 residents are living on top of huge platinum deposits are wildly exaggerated, ac-cording to Alan Sauerbrei, Inco’s director of exploration for eastern North America.

“We want to make it clear that there has been no discovery and no drilling here,” he told The Northern Miner recently.

Geophysical data from surveys completed this summer prompt Inco geologists to speculate that precious metals may be found above an ultramafic layer that may or may not lie below the complex.

“But even if there is something there, it would probably be located about 1,000-1,500 metres below surface,” Sauerbrei said.

However, reports of staking activity around Sept-Iles has created a lot of excitement in the area and local geologists are hoping that if Inco goes ahead with an $800,000 pro-gram next summer, it will lead to something significant.

“People here like the idea,” said Daniel Denis, director of Fonds Regionale d’Exploration Miniere de la Cote Nord, a private Sept-Iles company funded in part by the Quebec government.

He says the staking operation was so secretive that it isn’t yet known whether other companies have moved in to pick up any ground left open by Inco. After completing more geophysical work in the fall, Sauerbrei says exploration crews may drill a couple of holes next summer to determine what the mineral potential of the complex might be.