Matamec looks south at Vulcain

Results from an airborne electromagnetic survey at the Vulcain property, 165 km southeast of Val d’Or, Que., suggest that previously mined zones of nickel-copper mineralization extend southward beyond a historical open pit.

Operator Matamec Explorations (MAT-V) says the results show an EM anomaly 700 metres long by about 100 metres wide. The anomaly coincides with two known zones of nickel-copper mineralization and extends to the south.

The property includes the Renzy Lake mine, which, between 1969 and 1972, produced 650,000 tonnes of ore from a 920,000-tonne reserve that graded 0.72% copper and 0.7% nickel. Resource estimates dating from the time of mining also indicate 890,000 tonnes of a “possible” reserve (equivalent to a modern inferred resource) at similar grades.

A more recent resource calculation, by Geostat Systems International, put the inferred resource much lower, at 259,000 tonnes grading 0.87% nickel and 0.94% copper. Matamec and Geostat have limited confidence in this resource, because precise information about hole locations and geology is lacking.

Mineralization at Renzy Lake was massive, semi-massive and veinlet-textured nickel and copper sulphides. The EM anomaly is believed to originate with more sulphide mineralization at shallow depth.