The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
New resource estimate underway for energy metals project North of 60 Mining News – December 1, 2023
Assays from 39,270 meters of drilling in 145 holes are being incorporated into an updated resource estimate for the Ferguson Lake nickel-copper-cobalt-PGM project in Nunavut.
Click on image for larger Ferguson Lake drill result map.
Canadian North Resources Inc. Nov. 28 reported that assays from the final 26 holes drilled this year at Ferguson Lake has extended three of the zones at this critical minerals project in Nunavut's Kivalliq region.
The 256.8-square-kilometer (99.2 square miles) Ferguson Lake project covers a roughly 15-kilometer- (nine miles) long mineralized trend enriched with nickel, copper, cobalt, and platinum group metals.
According to a 2022 calculation, Ferguson Lake hosts 24.3 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.85% (455.4 million pounds) copper, 0.6% (296.3 million lb) nickel, 0.07% (37.5 million lb) cobalt, 1.38 grams per metric ton (1.08 million ounces) palladium, and 0.23 g/t (180,000 oz) platinum; plus 47.2 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.91% (946.9 million lb) copper, 0.53% (551.5 million lb) nickel, 0.06% (62.4 million lb) cobalt, 1.4 g/t (2.12 million oz) palladium, and 0.25 g/t (380,000 oz) platinum.
Canadian North's 21,126-meter 2023 diamond drilling program was carried out in two phases; a 21-hole spring on-ice program to test the main mineralized horizon trending under Ferguson Lake and a 57-hole summer program to expand and upgrade the known mineralization and test new targets.
Highlights from the spring program include:
• 14 meters averaging 0.32% copper, 0.34% nickel, 0.05% cobalt, 0.65 g/t palladium, 0.16 g/t platinum, and 0.01 g/t rhodium from a depth of 17 meters in hole FL23-501.
• 10 meters averaging 0.89% copper, 0.53% nickel, 0.08% cobalt, 1.05 g/t palladium, 0.12 g/t platinum, and 0.02 g/t rhodium from a depth of 47.6 meters in hole FL23-504A.
• Five meters averaging 0.83% copper, 0.34% nickel, 0.04% cobalt, 0.78 g/t palladium, 0.12 g/t platinum, and 0.01 g/t rhodium from a depth of 84.5 meters in hole FL23-515.
• Five meters averaging 0.61% copper, 0.83% nickel, 0.07% cobalt, 1.07 g/t palladium, 0.17 g/t platinum, and 0.01 g/t rhodium from a depth of 87.5 meters in hole FL23-521.
In September, the company announced results from the initial batch of results from the summer program, which significantly extended the East and West zones within the main mineralized horizon. Highlights include:
• 10 meters averaging 1.48% copper, 0.48% nickel, 0.06% cobalt, 1.28 g/t palladium, 0.06 g/t platinum, and 0.02 g/t rhenium from a depth of 656 meters in hole FL23-481B.
• 33.85 meters averaging 0.24% copper, 0.21% nickel, 0.03% cobalt, 0.59 g/t palladium, and 0.13 g/t platinum from 299.85 meters in FL23-497A.
• Three meters averaging 0.58% copper, 0.75% nickel, 0.07% cobalt, 1.33 g/t palladium, 0.11 g/t platinum, and 0.02 g/t rhenium from 198.5 meters in FL23-522A.
• Nine meters averaging 0.74% copper, 0.42% nickel, 0.06% cobalt, 0.9 g/t palladium, 0.13 g/t platinum, and 0.02 g/t rhenium from 238 meters in FL23-524.
Based upon these results, the East Zone has been extended along strike 950 meters further to the east from its historic resource boundaries, and the West Zone has been extended further along strike 250 meters to the west.
The final batch of 2023 drill results are from holes that extended West Zone by 200 meters; tested the newly defined Anomaly 51 (A51 Zone) and M-Zone southeast of East Zone; and reconnaissance holes testing an extension of A51 Zone and a parallel horizon south of Central Zone.
Highlights from this final batch of Ferguson Lake assays include:
• 112.5 meters averaging 0.16% nickel, 0.23% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.35 g/t palladium, and 0.06 g/t platinum from a depth of 312.5 meters in hole FL23-527B (West Zone).
• 7.6 meters averaging 0.32% nickel, 0.4% copper, 0.05% cobalt, 0.94 g/t palladium, and 0.20 g/t platinum from a depth of 284.4 meters in hole FL23-543 (M-Zone).
• 10 meters averaging 0.21% nickel, 0.35% copper, 0.04% cobalt, 0.31 g/t palladium, and 0.03 g/t platinum from a depth of 103 meters in hole FL23-549 (A51 Zone).
• Three meters averaging 0.17% nickel, 0.12% copper, 0.03% cobalt, 0.31 g/t palladium, and 0.05 g/t platinum from 125.5 meters; two meters averaging 0.26% nickel, 0.24% copper, 0.04% cobalt, 0.49 g/t palladium, and 0.18 g/t platinum from a depth of 170.5 meters; and 2.5 meters averaging 0.22% nickel, 0.3% copper, 0.03% cobalt, 0.37 g/t palladium, and 0.03 g/t platinum from a depth of 175.5 meters in hole FL23-553 (A51 Extension).
• Three meters averaging 0.21% nickel, 1.09% copper, 0.04% cobalt, 0.43 g/t palladium, and 0.01 g/t platinum from a depth of 46 meters in F23-559 (Central Zone South).
"These results are expected to significantly upgrade and add new resources to the current mineral resource estimates," said Canadian North Resources Vice President of Exploration Trevor Boyd. "Moreover, these drill results helped the project geologists to better understand the structural model for the mineralized zones. The new geological model indicated significant potential for further expansion of near-surface resources in East Zone, M-Zone and A51 Zone, as all the mineralized zones are open along the strike and down dip."
Canadian North is currently having the Ferguson Lake resource updated with assays from 39,270 meters of drilling completed in 145 holes since the last resource calculation for this critical minerals project in Nunavut.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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