Falconbridge Limited (TSE) recently collared what will eventually be a 4,500-ft exploration shaft at its Lindsley base/precious metals project in the Sudbury, Ont., region.
The Toronto-based nickel producer is spending $32 million on the first new shaft sinking program it has undertaken in the Sudbury area in about 10 years. The program is designed to explore two deep seated orebodies which have been outlined by recent surface drilling.
Although Falconbridge has been exploring the Lindsley property for the past 30 years, it is only in the last 18 months that deep drilling has started to produce some interesting intersections, said project manager Tom Pugsley.
The decision to sink a 16-ft diameter shaft followed the discovery of high grade mineralization at the Lindsley project in July, 1987, when the nickel miner encountered 255.5 ft of grade 2.3% nickel, 4.4% copper, 0.12% cobalt, 0.11 oz silver per ton, 0.07 oz gold, 0.08 oz platinum and 0.27 oz palladium per ton.
When shaft sinking begins on Feb 1, Pugsley said it will take about 2 1/2 years to complete the project. “At the 4,270-ft elevation we will drift south through the contact and complete 115,000 ft of drilling,” he said.
“We have done a lot of deep surface drilling and we felt we had to go underground to see what the ore zones are all about.”
The nickel producer’s last shaft collaring in the Sudbury area took place at the Sudbury-based Fraser mine which produces about 700,000 tons of high grade nickel ore annually. “We have a lot of hopes for the new project,” said Pugsley.
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