Drills turning at Foy and Midrim
01/11/2001
Vancouver -- Encouraging results from last year's drilling on the Midrim and Foy properties have prompted junior Aurora Platinum (ARP-V) to intensify its hunt for nickel sulphides in Ontario and Quebec.
The Midrim property is located 20 km northeast of Ville-Marie, Que. Previously released results from the first five holes of an initial 16-hole drill program returned promising grades.
Holes 1 and 5 intercepted well-mineralized gabbroic rocks containing disseminated and massive sulphides. Intersections in hole 1 included 19.7 metres of 2.99% copper, 1.85% nickel, 0.07% cobalt, 0.97 gram platinum, 1.77 grams palladium and 0.48 gram gold per tonne. High-grade intersections in hole 5 included 6.3 metres of 4.74% copper, 4.94% nickel, 0.11% cobalt, 1.24 grams platinum, 4.71 grams palladium and 0.17 gram gold.
The property, though drilled in the 1960’s, was never systematically explored for platinum and palladium. The main zone extends for a strike length of 230 metres. The average grades of seven previous drill intercepts were 1.67% copper and 1.21% nickel over 13.6 metres.
Using one rig to define reserves and two rigs to test regional prospects and geophysical anomalies, the junior plans on drilling 10,000 metres during the current winter program.
Aurora can earn an initial 70% interest by spending $1.2 million on exploration, paying $200,000 cash and issuing $200,000 worth of shares over three years.
In the Sudbury mining district of Ontario, Aurora has resumed drilling on the Foy nickel-copper-platinum-palladium property.
A recently completed airborne geophysical survey identified a number of high-priority anomalies that prompted the junior to up the drill metres to 8,000 from the originally budgeted 5,000.
The program is testing a 500-metre strike length of anomalous mineralization associated with a radial feature known as the Foy Offset Dyke. Three holes are to be drilled to the 800-metre mark and surveyed using down-hole electromagnetic geophysics in order to identify the possibility of a more deeply seated orebody.
The company is drilling the second hole and has reportedly hit a number of pods, lenses and veins of disseminated and massive-sulphide mineralization in holes 1 and 2.
Aurora plans on mobilizing a second rig to test airborne geophysical anomalies outlined last year.
Mineralization consists of chalcopyrite, pentlandite and pyrrhotite hosted in a breccia containing clasts of norite and quartz diorite.
On the nearby Falconbridge Township Footwall project, the junior is planning to launch a ground geophysical program over newly identified airborne anomalies. The drilling of high-priority targets is expected to begin in February.
The junior is earning a 60% stake in both the Foy and Footwall projects from Falconbridge (FL-T) by spending $6 million on exploration over a three-year period.
At the company's wholly owned Lansdowne House project in Ontario, an airborne geophysical survey is slated to begin next week. Aurora believes the property has the potential to contain "Stillwater-type" platinum group mineralization. |
