Jan 27 2020
Sienna Resources Inc. is pleased to announce that it has acquired the Marathon North Palladium Property in Northern Ontario directly bordering Generation Mining Limited’s Marathon Palladium Project.
This new project encompasses approximately 2,500 acres. According to Generation Mining’s webpage, the Marathon deposit is ‘one of’ the largest undeveloped platinum group metal mineral resources in North America hosting several PGM-Copper deposits, including the 7.1 million ounce palladium-equivalent Marathon Deposit. On January 6, 2020, Generation Mining Limited released a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) giving Marathon an after-tax net present value (NPV) of $871 million.
Jason Gigliotti, President of Sienna states, “We are extremely pleased to be able to acquire a large block of land directly bordering one of the largest palladium deposits in North America. This is an excellent complement to our platinum-palladium-nickel project in Sweden. Platinum and palladium prices have been some of the best performing metal prices recently, especially palladium, which is right near an all-time high. The timing for our new platinum-palladium project acquisition could not be more opportune. We are formulating plans to commence operations as soon as possible on our Marathon North Palladium Project and concurrently expecting to restart drilling in Sweden on our platinum-palladium-nickel Slättberg project. We had positive drilling on the last phase and have used that data to zero in on the best targets. Sienna is partnered with the NYSE’s EMX Royalty Corporation (EMX: NYSE) on this project, who are one of the most respected companies in mining. We feel that there is a massive demand and appetite for platinum and palladium assets and Sienna’s goal is to be a significant player in this arena in 2020.”
Sienna conducted a two-hole drill program in October 2019 at its Slättberg project in southern Sweden. That program targeted two electromagnetic (“EM”) anomalies detected by downhole surveys performed at the end of the 2018 drill program. One was detected in the vicinity of drill hole SIE-18-006 located at the west end of the trend of historic nickel mines, and one in the vicinity of drill hole SIE-18-003, near the center of the trend of mineralization.
Drill hole SIE-19-002 was drilled to test a strong EM response to the west of drill hole SIE-18-003 in the center of the trend of mineralization. Drill hole SIE-19-002 intersected a PGE rich vein 0.55 meters wide (from 88.0 m to 88.55 m), averaging 0.22% Ni, 1.79% Cu, and 4.15 ppm (4.15 g/t) PGE (4.05 g/t Pt vs 0.095 g/t Pd). Taking recent metal prices and assuming 100 percent recovery the hole returned 4.66g/t PdEq, 9.03g/t PtEq, 4.44% CuEq, and 1.72% NiEq. The unusual enrichment of PGE in this vein is notable and represents one of the highest values ever reported from the property. PGE contents seen in Sienna’s 2019 drill holes demonstrate strong PGE potential on the project. Drill hole SIE-19-002 also intersected unmapped mine workings at a depth of 70 meters. This demonstrates that nickel mineralization was mined at a larger scale than was indicated by historic records.
Drill hole SIE-19-001 was drilled to test the western anomaly. Several zones of sulfide mineralization were intercepted in the hole over a 28 meter interval from depths of 167 to 195 meters. This represents the broadest zone of sulfide mineralization ever intersected on the property. Sulfide mineralization was present as massive sulfide veins and in breccias, and is associated with, an unusually thick swarm of mafic dikes. The best intercept from within the zone of sulfide mineralization was 5.0 meters (from 167.75 m to 172.75 m) averaging 0.57% Ni, 0.47% Cu, 0.06% Co, and 0.48 ppm PGE, or just over 1% Ni equivalent using current metal prices.
Textures in the sulfide intervals are suggestive of tectonic remobilization of sulfides from a nearby source. Multiple thick mafic dikes were also intercepted in SIE-19-001, which are not seen in surface exposures, nor in the shallow drill holes elsewhere in this area. The abundance of sulfide, higher PGE values, and a swarm of mafic dikes suggest that Sienna is moving closer to a source area for the sulfide mineralization and associated mafic intrusions as it drills to progressively deeper levels in the western target area.