Partners to see if Duck Pond flies

Following a successful program of infill and extension drilling, Queenston Mining (QMI-T) and Thunderwood Resources (THR-T) are advancing the Duck Pond base metal project in central Newfoundland to the feasibility stage.

MRDI Canada will spend the next eight weeks on the resource estimate and, once that is complete, will work on a bankable feasibility study, to be released in the last quarter of the year.

The property, about 30 km southeast of Buchans, hosts a series of lens-like massive sulphide deposits, the largest being the Upper Duck lens with 3.9 million tonnes grading 3.8% copper, 6.7% zinc and 1.1% lead, plus 71 grams silver and 1.1 grams gold per tonne. The adjacent Lower Duck lens has 1 million tonnes grading 2.8% copper, 5% zinc, 1.4% lead, 32.5 grams silver and 0.6 gram gold, and the underlying Sleeper lens, 676,000 tonnes of 1.7% copper, 8.7% zinc, 1.2% lead, 62.5 grams silver and 0.5 gram gold.

The Boundary deposit, about 5 km away, has a further 446,000 tonnes grading 3.5% copper, 3.5% zinc, 0.5% lead and 22.8 grams gold, bringing the total resource to 6 million tonnes.

Noranda (NOR-T) carried out a prefeasibility study on the deposit in 1988, but the deposit did not meet the “big-company” threshold at the time. Queenston and Thundermin’s 25-hole, 9,300-metre drill program in 1999 established the continuity of the Duck Pond lenses, and a subsequent set of 82 holes drilled on Boundary also indicated potential for more resources.

The partners’ envision an underground development for Duck Pond and an open pit for Boundary. MRDI will be determining production rates, the pit limits, a mine design and mine plan for Duck Pond, as well as a design for tailings disposal. Metallurgical tests on the mineralization are already under way, as are environmental baseline studies. Preliminary economic work suggests a net smelter return (NSR) of US$66 per tonne for the global resource, about half of gross metal value. Subsequent metal price increases have moved the gross value figure beyond US$150 per tonne, suggesting an NSR nearer to US$75.

Noranda’s deal with the joint venture lets the major buy its way back into a 50% interest if the partners prove a substantially increased tonnage — about 14 million tonnes. To back in, Noranda would have to fund the final feasibility study and finance the partners’ shares of the cost to bring the deposit to production.