By ADELLE LARMOUR
Noront Resources Inc.’s Double Eagle property has taken flight with its new nickel/copper discovery in the Sachigo Greenstone Belt area in the James Bay Lowlands.
In northeastern Ontario, this global junior miner began building its McFauld’s Lake property four years ago, located approximately 50 kilometres east of Webequie. Continued staking and land acquisitions have substantially increased the land claims from its original 8, 528 hectares.
“I’m increasing our land package dramatically and there is a lot of competition,” says president and CEO Richard Nemis, which he describes as a “mini-staking rush.”
Double Eagle lies adjacent to the Spider/KWG’s properties, where seven copper-zinc mineralized bodies have been discovered, according to Spider Resources website. Nemis, who is native to Sudbury and partial to the North, says they are looking for the “mother load,” with the hope of forming the next base-metal camp, adding that it would be very significant for Northern Ontario.
“You can see the area has the possibility of many more discoveries and you want to own as much land in there as you can,” he says. “We’ve already established there are smaller deposits, but you’re always looking for that mother load that will pay for the infrastructure.”
Noront Resource’s most recent drill-hole number five has generated great interest. Nemis says it showed 120 metres of mineralization starting seven metres from the overburden. “It has about 60 or 70 m of massive sulphides on it.” Curious about this finding, currently they are drilling hole six under hole five.
At the time of writing, they were still awaiting assay results. Nemis is encouraged by the mineralization discovered in this hole and believes they may see platinum, palladium and gold, similar to the Sudbury or Voisey Bay’s nickel deposits.
“The setting is very similar,” he says. “People are beginning to compare it, because it does have the same characteristics as Voisey Bay, which was the last major discovery in Canada.”
In an August 28, 2007 press release, assay results from drill-hole number one intersected visible copper sulphide mineralization (chalcopyrite) in a peridotite geological setting. Partial assay results indicated 36 m averaging 1.84 per cent nickel, and 1.53 per cent copper.
Having spent close to $1 million on the Double Eagle to date, Nemis is considering bringing in another drill before winter freeze up to try and “understand the nature of the beast they are sitting upon.”
Plans to spend more on the property are in progress. Nemis says the company will have $35 million of working capital with no debt, assuming all the warrants are exercised within the company over the next short period of time. He will also be looking for joint ventures in order to help develop the area due to its immense size.
While Noront focuses on its Double Eagle property in Northern Ontario, the company has other national and global projects. Its Quebec gold project is awaiting permits to perform underground bulk sampling, as well as a joint venture drill project at the Burnt Hill Tungsten Mine in New Brunswick, with the intent to bring the deposit back into production. Nemis says these major projects will help finance the Double Eagle exploration project.
www.norontresources.com
