North American Palladium (NAP) has made a platinum group (PGM) discovery in the middle of a property it’s exploring near Thunder Bay.
The Toronto mining company released results from its winter exploration program on the Sunday Lake Project. NAP punched ten holes in an 8,500-metre drill program.
One drill hole yielding 18.65 metres of 4.05 grams per tonne (g/t) a combination of platinum, palladium and gold (3E) on the east side of the property.
Another hole intersected 35.8 metres of 3.9 g/t 3E including 6.5m of 8.3 g/t 3E with 1.08 per cent copper and 0.36 per cent nickel.
Yet another hole produced 33.2 metres of 2.8 g/t 3E including 5.9 metres of 6.8 g/t 3E and 0.67% copper with 1.0 metre of 17.5 g/t 3E and 1.48% copper, represents the first discovery of PGM mineralization in the central part of the Sunday Lake intrusion.
The 2,600-hectare Sunday Lake property is 25 kilometres north of Thunder Bay and 95 kilometres by road from the company’s main Lac des Illes mine. NAP signed an option agreement with Impala Platinum Holdings and Sudbury's Transition Metals Corp last June, and then embarked on a geophysics program last fall to identify targets to drill off.
The option agreement gives NAP the exclusive right to earn Impala’s 75 per cent interest in the Sunday Lake property. Transition will maintain a 25 per cent free carried interest until a feasibility study oi the project is completed.
NAP management likes what they’ve seen so far.
“We are very encouraged by the new drilling results at Sunday Lake, which provide clear targets for follow-up programs, including newly defined structural targets, untested geophysical anomalies, and additional drilling on newly discovered PGM mineralization in the centre of the SLI,” said NAP president-CEO Jim Gallagher in a March 27 company release. “This project is the most advanced exploration-stage opportunity within our attractive regional property portfolio.”
Dave Peck, NAP’s vice-president of exploration said the finding PGM mineralization in the centre of the property, with extensions to the east, “are very positive developments that open up a much larger area for exploration. We have a better understanding of the controls on PGM mineralization, which suggest that the thicker and higher-grade areas were developed along two major structural trends and are detectable using geophysical data. These new insights are generating additional targets for future drilling programs.”
The company said it plans to explore other untested areas, including the new mineralization in the middle of the property and areas to the north and east.
