Plus de fume que du feu — Lac Volant showings a bust

Preliminary drill results from the Lac Volant nickel-copper showings northeast of Sept-Iles, Que., have proved disappointing for Quebec government-owned Soquem.

Four holes, drilled to a depth of 50-70 metres, intersected only disseminated sulphides rather than the massive sulphides seen at surface.

“Sure, it’s a setback but not a major one,” says Denis Raymond, Soquem’s manager for the Appalachians-Grenville region. “It’s part of the game.” He adds that Soquem will continue drilling the site in an attempt to identify mineralization at depth. Results from this program will be available by mid-April.

The property still holds several untested targets, and Soquem will continue exploration there in the spring. Plans include more than 2,000 metres of drilling, as well as ground geological, geochemical and geophysical surveying.

Grab samples from the Lac Volant gossan showings, which were discovered in August 1996 by provincial geologists during a reconnaissance mapping program, returned values as high as 2% nickel, 2.3% copper and 0.1% cobalt.

Following the discovery, the provincial government made the controversial decision to withdraw an 800-sq.-km area from staking, only to stake 130 claims for itself. When the government lifted the ban a month later, a staking rush ensued.

Although promoters often liken the Lac Volant showings to the giant Voisey’s Bay nickel-cobalt deposit in Labrador, significant differences exist between the two. The Lac Volant showings occur in a mineralized gabbro situated entirely within the 1-billion-year-old Grenville geological province, whereas the Voisey’s Bay deposit is associated with troctolite and anorthosite, and straddles the 1.8-billion-year-old Churchill and the 1.4-billion-year-old Nain geological provinces.