Avalon Ventures Ltd -
Cdn Golden/East West expand Wolf Mountain program
Avalon Ventures Ltd AVL
Shares issued 21,430,231 Sep 27 2000 close $.650
Sep 28 2000 7:09:59
Mr. Elliot Strashin reports
In excess of $300,000 has been spent so far by Canadian Golden Dragon Resources Ltd. and East West Resource Corporation (EWR) on the Wolf Mountain joint venture (Seagull and Disraeli properties) to date, to earn CGG and EWR a combined 50-per-cent interest in the properties with Avalon Ventures Ltd. (AVL) holding the remaining 50 per cent. CGG and EWR have elected to increase their combined ownership of the properties to 60 per cent and assume operatorship of the joint venture by issuing to AVL 50,000 shares of each company and by spending a further $700,000 on exploration and development work on the properties prior to June 4, 2004.
Approximately $200,000 has been budgeted for the current program. A new geophysical (IP -- magnetic surveys) grid to the west of the existing AVL grid will be established to trace the up-dip extension of the sulphide zone intersected in holes WM 98-05 and WM 98-02. Recent mapping on the west margin of the Seagull pluton has located two exposures of the gabbro pyroxenite that are very similar to the host rock found in the lower basal phase of the intrusion that hosts the sulphides. This would imply that the host for the sulphide horizon extends for 300 metres west of hole WM 98-05 to the western margin of the Seagull pluton. The west margin has never been explored and now represents a 3.0-kilometre by 3.0-kilometre area within which shallow, near surface sulphide zones may occur. The geophysics and possible diamond drilling in this area are to confirm this supposition.
The highest platinum group element (PGE) concentration found so far occurs within the basal gabbro layer in hole WM 98-05 extension where 1.04 grams per tonne Pt-Pd were obtained over 16 metres. Hole WM 98-02 extension, to the north, encountered 1.1 g/t Pt-Pd over 1.6 metres, also at the base of the intrusion, suggesting that the basal sulphide zone widens to the south toward an EM conductor. Thus drilling of another hole where this EM conductor occurs on L 2000E, south of WM 98-05 is being considered. It is thought that the sulphide basal zone may be analogous to the keel of a boat with the up dip to the northwest representing the bow of the boat. Future drilling and downhole geophysics will be directed at locating a more sulphide rich phase at the base of the intrusion.
Thin section examination of the core from WM98-05 at 574 metres has classified the gabbro-pyroxenite as lherzolite, which means this unit contains the mineral olivine and is one of the host rocks that one finds in other important world-class ultramafic intrusions that host nickel-copper-PGE deposits.
A preliminary report on the mineralogy and mineral chemistry of selected specimens from the Wolf Mountain property has now been completed by Richard Taylor, of the department of earth sciences at the Carleton University. A number of important facts have come from this work. Firstly the mineralogy has a similarity to the Duluth gabbro deposits as well as footwall settings found in Sudbury. The PGE values appear to be dissolved within the chalcopyrite and pentlandite that occur. The rocks formed from a high-temperature magma. Abundant cumulate textures occur. The sulphide blebs at the base of the intrusion are zoned showing copper above and pyrrhotite-pentlandite (nickel) below, hence forming an attractive location for PGE accumulation. There is evidence of a later stage alteration that may be an early stage for the remobilization of palladium. Cubanite occurs in exsolution with chalcopyrite which is typical of other deposits in the world such as Sudbury and Noril'sk. Pentlandite often forms flame-textured intergrowths into the pyrrhotite.
Four to five PGE (platinum Pt, palladium Pd) minerals have been identified by SEM (scanning electron microscope) in the basal sulphide zone in hole WM98-05 ext, which include:
Sperrylite, PtAs2;
palladium-bismuth-telluride mineral, possibly michenerite, PdBiTe or merenskyite, PdTe2
an unnamed Pd-Cu mineral; and
altaite, Pd-bearing lead telluride, PbTe.
These PGE minerals and textures occur in other major nickel (Ni)-copper (Cu)-PGE deposits such as Sudbury, Noril'sk and Duluth.
Footwall veins and feeder dikes may occur at the base of this intrusion and should be explored for since they would contain increased PGE values. This suggestion based on the mineralogical similarity to other PGE-bearing intrusions in the world is supported by the magnetic susceptibility model, which identifies structures that look like feeder dikes. The next drill program will test one of these structures near line 2300E, 300 metres east of hole WM 9805.
Work carried out in the first half of this year by the East West Resource Corporation and Canadian Golden Dragon Resources with Avalon Ventures as operator has established that there is important mineral potential in the Seagull pluton and that there are sulphide zones present at the base of the intrusion that are not dissimilar to the Noril'sk type setting in Siberia. The four holes drilled in May, June and July have established two sections -- a north-south cross section in holes WM98-05 ext. and WM98-02 ext., and a longitudinal east-west section between WM98-05 ext. and WM00-01. Anomalous platinum-palladium values greater than 0.1 gram (100 parts per billion) were noted in seven locations in hole WM98-05 and 10 locations in WM00-01, which suggest there are a number of consistent layers within the intrusion that contain elevated PGE values. These zones, or layers, range from 1.6 metres to 16 metres in thickness, however, the highest values occur where sulphides are present, particularly copper sulphide (chalcopyrite). In addition there is always an anomalous zone within the basal gabbro-pyroxenite and the anomalous layers above this basal unit tend to align from hole to hole. This phenomenon is not uncommon in the large PGE-bearing ultramafic intrusions in the world where PGE values concentrate in layers, most commonly with oxides such as magnetite and/or chromite as well as with sulphides.
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