Puma Exploration (TSXV: PUM) has been active in northern New Brunswick’s Bathurst mining camp for more than a decade, but stepped up its involvement last year with agreements to acquire 100% of the Murray Brook polymetallic project, 60 km west of the city of Bathurst.
The junior signed deals in October 2016 to acquire Votorantim’s 67.9% stake in the project and the other 32.1% held by El Nino Ventures (TSXV: ELN), for $9 million.
The volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit is 4 km from Trevali Mining’s (TSX: TV; US-OTC: TREVF) Caribou mine, which produces zinc and lead-silver concentrates, and 7.5 km from the past-producing lead-zinc-silver Restigouche mine.
Between 1989 and 1992, Murray Brook’s previous owner, NovaGold Resources (TSX: NG; NYSE-MKT: NG), mined 2.7 million tonnes of the gold-enriched gossan cap overlying the sulphide deposit, recovering 45,000 oz. gold and 315,000 oz. silver.
In December, Puma updated the resource estimate to show the deposit contains 610 million lb. zinc, 209 million lb. lead, 54 million lb. copper, 11.7 million oz. silver and 111,000 oz. gold.
Measured and indicated resources total 5.28 million tonnes averaging 5.24% zinc, 1.80% lead, 0.46% copper, 68.9 grams silver per tonne and 0.65 gram gold per tonne.
The measured and indicated resource categories represent 68% and 30% of the total sulphide mineral resource at Murray Brook.
Consultant Steve McCutcheon (left) and field geologist Alain Hupe at the Murray
Brook property. Credit: Puma Exploration.
The VMS deposit is exposed at surface and continues to 300 metres deep, and is open at depth and along strike, with drill-ready UTEM geophysical targets.
There are two lenses at the deposit: a western lens, which is deeper and zinc-rich, and an eastern lens, which is shallower and copper-rich, with some zinc.
The next step is to update Votorantim’s 2013 preliminary economic assessment.
“Votorantim did a lot of work between 2010 and 2013,” Marcel Robillard, Puma’s president and CEO, says in an interview. “I don’t know how much they spent over those three years, but they did all the preliminary work.”
In addition to 30,000 metres of drilling and completing a resource estimate, he says, Votorantim also did geophysical and magnetic surveys over the entire land package between the Murray Brook deposit and the Caribou mine.
“This will be a game-changer,” Robillard says. “New Brunswick is our playground. We have been working in the province since 2005, so we know the area well. I’ve been looking at the Murray Brook project in particular.”
Robillard says he’s glad he did the deals on Murray Brook before what he calls a “staking rush” got underway at the start of the year.
“Since January everyone wants to be in New Brunswick — there’s a big, big claim rush in the Bathurst mining camp, which brings a lot more attention to the area,” he says, adding that Puma started talks with Votorantim and El Nino Ventures as early as July 2016.
Since January 2017, Osisko Metals (TSXV: OM), formerly Bowmore Exploration Ltd., has acquired and staked 400 sq. km in the Bathurst camp, with the goal of developing a multi-deposit asset base in the region that would feed a central concentrator.
Osisko Metals’ latest deal, announced July 6, is an option agreement to acquire 100% of the Mount Fronsac zinc property from two private owners. The property, formerly owned by Glencore (LON: GLEN), has a historic resource of 1.26 million tonnes grading 7.7% zinc and 2.2% lead.
Mount Fronsac, 40 km west of Bathurst, is a relatively recent discovery of massive zinc-lead sulphides in the western part of the camp. Osisko Metals says its short-term objective is to upgrade and expand the known resource to National Instrument 43-101 standards.
The junior exploration and development company is headed by Jeff Hussey, a geologist whose 30-year career in the business includes overseeing exploration and resource development at the Brunswick No. 12 mine.
In June, Hussey noted that the Bathurst camp was a major producer of base metal for 50 years, with total production of 136 million tonnes of 12% zinc and lead before the Brunswick No. 12 mine closed in 2013. This modern geological interpretation has opened up new areas for exploration in the camp.
Meanwhile back at Murray Brook, Robillard expects to complete an updated PEA before year-end.
“This is a huge play. It’s not a small zone — it has major zones. And the most beautiful thing is that it starts at surface and goes down to 300 metres, compared to the Caribou mine, where they are mining at 800 metres deep,” Robillard says, adding that another attribute at Murray Brook is that the high-grade zones found so far are all located on the western side of the deposit.
“If the high grade was scattered all over the place I wouldn’t have taken it, because it would be more difficult to mine,” he says. “Now we can mine it as a big open pit. But we also have the opportunity to reach the high-grade zone and mine it underground.”
The company has more than 18 km of unexplored ground at Murray Brook and there is little overburden to slow exploration. It has started a trenching program and will implement a 4,000-metre drill program — half surrounding the deposit, and the other on regional targets.
In addition to Murray Brook, Puma has three earlier stage projects in the camp. The company acquired the Nicholas-Denys project in 2006, the Turgeon project in 2007 and the Red Brook project in January 2016.
Nicholas-Denys is 20 km northwest of Bathurst and Red Brook is 50 km west of Nicholas-Denys. Turgeon is 5 km south of Belledune, a deepwater port in northern New Brunswick.
This company has great potential upside going forward.