Magma Metals announced that it has started a winter drilling program at the Thunder Bay North project located in northwest Ontario, Canada.
Scheduled to be completed in March 2012, the winter drill program with two drill rigs includesabout 13 diamond drill holes for 4,500 m. The drilling will analyze two magnetic anomalies in the Quetico Fault zone towards the west of the Thunder Bay North project in the Mary Lake and Spike Lake projects. It will also test a number of Z-axis Tipper Electro-Magnetic and magnetic anomalies in the mafic-ultramafic magma conduit complex located in the platinum-palladium-copper-nickel Thunder Bay North project, and the mafic-ultramafic magma conduit located in the Greenwich Lake Joint Venture.
A recent Z-axis Tipper Electro-Magnetic airborne geophysical survey has revealed a number of anomalies, which delineate new target regions. Majority of these regions are coincident with topographic lows and magnetic anomalies, which are typical of the mafic-ultramafic magma conduits in this area. A number of reconnaissance holes have been scheduled to examine the most important targets.
Moreover, two important anomalies seem to be related to the mineralization in the Steepledge Lake and Current Lake Intrusive Complexes. However, three-dimensional model of these anomalies signifies sources that resemble deep sub-horizontal tube and seem to lie below the mineralization. The Current Lake anomaly’s source is minimum 600 m deep. These aspects possibly denote deep magma conduits that are managed by the same structures like those delineated by drilling nearer to the surface. The company has planned a deep reconnaissance hole to analyze the Current Lake target.
Further, the company has defined a mafic-ultramafic magma conduit target in the Greenwich Lake Joint Venture by means of interpretation of aeromagnetic data and field mapping. A historical drill-hole measuring 209 m in depth in this target encountered elevated platinum and palladium values up to 177 parts per billion and anomalous copper values up to 431 parts per million. Magma Metals has planned to analyze this target by drilling four holes.
Mineral resources defined at the Thunder Bay North project include 8.46 Mt at 2.13g/t platinum- equivalent (1.04g/t platinum, 0.98g/t palladium, 0.25% copper and 0.18% nickel) comprising 580,000 ounces platinum-equivalent metal in open pit indicated resource; 0.05 Mt at 2.00g/t platinum-equivalent (0.96g/t platinum, 0.89g/t palladium, 0.22% copper and 0.18% nickel) comprising 3,000 ounces platinum-equivalent metal in inferred resources; 1.03 Mt at 3.48g/t platinum-equivalent (1.63g/t platinum, 1.51g/t palladium, 0.39% copper and 0.24% nickel) comprising 115,000 ounces platinum-equivalent metal in underground indicated resource; and 0.21 Mt at 3.00g/t platinum-equivalent (1.40g/t platinum, 1.29g/t palladium, 0.34% copper and 0.23% nickel) in inferred resources.