New zone found near Caber, Caber North

Drilling has intersected a narrow zone of zinc-copper-silver massive sulphide mineralization in an untested area between the Caber and Caber North deposits near Matagami, Que.

Noranda (NOR-T) can earn up to a 70% interest in the property from Southern Africa Minerals (SAF-T) by spending $6 million on exploration, making $2.8 million in private placements over a 4-year period, and bringing the project to production

A feasibility study is investigating the possibility of mining the deposit by using a ramp and processing ore at the Matagami concentrator, owned by Noranda. Four drill rigs are currently at work on the property.

The feasibility is based on a resource estimate (for all lenses) of 484,000 tonnes grading 11.7% zinc and 1% copper, plus 14.4 grams silver and 0.23 gram gold per tonne.

Two smaller, separate areas were blocked out as well: one of 31,000 tonnes grading 10.8% zinc, 0.4% copper, 14.4 grams silver and 0.09 gram gold; and another, of 41,700 tonnes of 1.3% zinc, 2.6% copper, 7.4 grams silver and 0.21 gram gold. Both resources are classified as inferred.

Recent exploration at Caber has focused on the Key Tuffite horizon, which hosts all the known massive sulphide deposits in the Matagami camp. Drill hole 78, which tested the area between Caber and Caber North, returned assays of 17.7% zinc, 5.3% copper and 91.6 grams silver over a core length of 1.25 metres at a vertical depth of 440 metres.

The mineralization was found at the Key Tuffite interface and is directly on strike with the Caber deposit, 400 metres to the southeast. Hole 79, drilled below hole 78, intersected the favourable horizon at a vertical depth of 150 metres. A 9.9-metre stringer zone was followed by a narrow 30-cm interval that graded 1.04% zinc and 5.18% copper.

The new zone remains open in several directions, and ongoing drilling is aimed at testing for a widening of the zone on strike to the north and south. Another prospective area was identified on the northwestern portion of the Caber property, which also remains underexplored. A drill program is being prepared for this target area.

Any new lenses discovered boost the likelihood of the project’s being developed into a mine. Ore would be processed at Noranda’s Matagami concentrator and possibly blended with ore from Noranda’s nearby, new Bell-Allard copper-zinc mine.