Noront tallies Eagle One resource

VANCOUVER — Since the discovery hole at the Double Eagle property in northeast Ontario hit massive sulphide mineralization in September, Noront Resources (NOT-V) investors have been anxiously awaiting a resource estimate for the nickel-copper- platinum group elements project.

The wait is over. On an otherwise quiet July 4, Noront released an initial estimate for Eagle One, the better explored of two main exploration targets at Double Eagle. Almost 30 drill holes delineated a mantle-derived, ultramafic intrusion that hosts an elongated, steeply dipping lens of dominantly disseminated sulphides. The disseminated sulphides, in turn, encapsulate a lens of high-grade massive sulphides.

In the indicated category, Eagle One hosts 233,000 tonnes of massive sulphide mineralization grading 6.52% nickel, 3.45% copper, 0.24 gram gold per tonne, 1.94 grams platinum, 12.21 grams palladium and 9.75 grams silver. The larger envelope of disseminated sulphides comprises 1.6 million tonnes averaging 1.3% nickel, 0.85% copper, 0.14 gram gold, 1 gram platinum, 2.7 grams palladium and 2.94 grams silver.

The estimate pegged the combined massive and disseminated inferred resources at 1.1 million tonnes grading 2.39% nickel, 1.27% copper, 0.13 gram gold, 1.37 grams platinum, 4.5 grams palladium and 4.21 grams silver.

Drilling results indicated dip lengths of up to 225 metres, projected onto 200 metres of strike length. The deposit remains open along strike and downdip for further expansion.

And while Noront is actively working to expand the deposit, the company’s thoughts are already turning to production.

In a statement, Noront CEO Richard Nemis discussed the possibility of initially shipping unprocessed ore from the high-grade massive sulphide zone to a southern-based concentrator-smelter complex.

Cash flow derived from such an operation would then allow the company to build an on-site concentrator for the disseminated mineralization.

And a forward-focus on production was also clear from the fact that Noront calculated net smelter return (NSR) value estimates for its resource amounts in its press release. But the company later had to retract the NSR estimates because the project has not yet seen a scoping-type study.

Noront also had to retract its initial news release title, “Another Windfall for Noront With High Grade on Initial Resource Estimates at Eagle One Deposit.” The reason the Ontario Securities Commission demanded the retraction is best explained by Noront itself: “Noront retracts the usage of the word Windfall in its news release title, in that it inadvertently draws potentially undue attention to a lottery-style win, rather than the intended reference to Noront’s Windfall Lake property in Northern Quebec.”

The company was halted at $2.70 after releasing its Eagle One resource estimate, and traded at $2.47 at presstime. Noront has a 52-week trading range of 29-$7.42 and has 129.4 million shares issued.

Noront’s discovery at Eagle One kicked off a staking rush around the McFauld’s Lake area. The company is actively involved in several of the area-play exploration projects as a joint-venture partner.

Noront proved its property name, Double Eagle, was justified in late February, with the announcement of another massive sulphide occurrence 2 km southwest of Eagle One — appropriately dubbed Eagle Two.

The latest results from Eagle Two have returned significant copper-nickel mineralization from depths exceeding 400 metres. In general terms, the number of mineralized zones encountered increases with depth as does the tenure of sulphide mineralization.

Mineralization containing copper- nickel sulphides has been traced to 350 metres depth; chromitite mineralization to date extends to 400 metres depth. Both zones occupy positions conformable with and near the stratigraphic bottom of a wide peridotite sill, which in turn unconformably overlies a granodiorite older basement rock.

The aim of the current drill program is not to define the lateral or horizontal extension of the zone but rather to follow mineralization to depth in search of a postulated pool of concentrated copper-nickel sulphides lying on the basement rocks, as found at Eagle One.

In a more generalized view, Noront’s Ring of Fire conceptual model turns on the idea that a mantle-derived, highly magmatic ultramafic peridotite intrusion (the Ring of Fire Intrusion or RFI) has been placed along the margin of a regional-scale granodiorite pluton, which has been intruded into and caused a doming of the host Sachigo greenstone belt. As such, the RFI is situated between a granodiorite footwall and a Sachigo greenstone belt hangingwall.

The RFI is magnetically distinct from both, allowing for easy tracing, and it seems a series of conduits cutting across and through the granodiorite have acted as feeders to the RFI.

Using this model, the Eagle One deposit is interpreted as occurring within a conduit feeder, at some distance from the RFI. The Eagle Two discovery is interpreted as occurring within the throat of the conduit, where it empties into the RFI. Noront’s geologists think the drill results obtained to date at Eagle Two — seemingly coalescing finger-style mineralization — are consistent with this model, which is why the search is on for a possible feeder conduit that would constitute another Eagle One-type deposit.