Platinova discovery ups chances for Peary Land

A zinc discovery at the Peary Land project on the northern tip of Greenland may supply the high-grade tonnage Platinova A/S (PAS-T) needs to develop the property.

Drilling between the Discovery and Beach zones, Platinova hit grades ranging from 9.7% zinc over 28.8 metres to 18% zinc over 3.4 metres at depths of 20-70 metres below surface. Although the four widely spaced holes intersected mineralization over a strike length of about 1 km, the new zone remains open along strike to the east and west.

The discovery is a high-grade booster for the property, where Platinova has already outlined a 25-million-ton resource grading 7% zinc and 1% lead.

“We always recognized that we needed a higher-grade tonnage to get some capital recovery,” says President Robert Gannicott. “This may take us over the top in terms of feasi-bility.”

He says Platinova requires proven and probable reserves of at least 10 million tons grading 10% zinc for the deposit to be economic. But extensive definition drilling will be required to increase the confidence level at Peary Land, where drill hole spacings average 300 metres.

In order to test the length, width and continuity of the new zone, Platinova has resumed drilling and plans to take full advantage of the summer months to establish additional resources.

The company has also been investigating a high-grade core within the previously explored Beach zone. Recent drilling returned 12.1% zinc and 0.8% lead over 4.9 metres, including 2.8 metres at 17.5% zinc.

The combination of high-grade ore from the new zone and tonnage from the Beach zone’s high-grade core may be sufficient to initiate development.

Peary Land was discovered in mid-1993, when Platinova followed favorable stratigraphy east from a known zinc occurence into unexplored territory.

Since then, the company has found at least four sulphide mounds along a strike length of 10 km. At least two, and sometimes three, levels of mineralization occur at each centre.

The Peary Land mineralization fits the sedimentary-exhalative (SEDEX) model used to explain the large Red Dog and Sullivan deposits, in Alaska and British Columbia, respectively. Mineralization occurs as bedded zinc, lead and iron sulphide hosted by a sequence of black shales. Within the shale sequence is a brecciated sub-unit that hosts the new zone.

Gannicott says mine development is expected to cost somewhere in the order of $250 million. Although development in the High Arctic is expensive, Peary Land is at an advantage because it sits on the coast, with direct access to sea transport.

Drill results are shown in the table below: