Magma Metals updates resource Thunder Bay North resource

An updated resource based on nearly twice as much drilling as the previous estimate completed a year ago reveals that the Thunder Bay North platinum-palladium-copper-nickel project in northwestern Ontario contains 708,000 platinum-equivalent ounces in the indicated category, Magma Metals (MMW-T, MMW-Z) reports. The news sent Magma’s share price up 2¢ or 4.4% to close at 48¢ per share.

The deposit, about 50 km northwest of Thunder Bay, is in the northern part of the 1.1- billion-year-old Proterozoic Midcontinent Rift region, an important emerging nickel-copper-platinum group metals province, the company says, explaining on its website that the geology of the region is “analogous to that of the giant Norilsk-Talnakh nickel-copper-platinum-group-metal camp in Russia.”

Ninety-seven percent of the updated resource is now in the indicated category, which will “facilitate detailed modeling of the interface between the proposed open pit and underground mines, and the design of the proposed underground mine,” explains Keith Watkins, Magma’s executive chairman.

About 81% of the resource by contained metal is within the open pit, with the remainder in the underground area and a scoping study will be completed in the December quarter of this year.

Based on 97,000 metres of drilling, 528 diamond drill holes, and more than 28,600 assay samples, indicated resources now total 9.06 million tonnes grading 2.43 grams platinum-equivalent per tonne for 708,000 platinum-equivalent oz. (The 9.06 million tonnes grades 1.14 grams platinum per tonne, 1.07 grams palladium, 0.05 gram rhodium, 0.07 gram gold, 1.7 grams silver, 0.27 gram copper, 0.19% nickel and 0.015 gram cobalt.)

Inferred resources total 0.27 million tonnes grading 2.81 grams platinum-equivalent per tonne for 24,000 platinum-equivalent oz. (The 0.27 million tonnes grades 1.31 grams platinum, 1.21 grams palladium, 0.06 gram rhodium, 0.08 gram gold, 1.9 grams silver, 0.32 gram copper, 0.22% nickel and 0.016 cobalt.