Kenty-Delta Ungava
Metals of interests: Nickel, Copper and PGM
Ownership: 49% Melkior 51% Xstrata
Location : 75km west south-west from Xstrata's airstrip at Donaldson and 100km south south-east of the tow of Salluit, Quebec.
Surface area : 41 claims for a surface area of 6.56 km2
Geological Context :
The property is located geologically in what is referred to as the South Domain of the Ungava or Cape Smith belt. The South Domain includes the Lamarche, Povungnituk and Chukotat Groups, collectively interpreted as an extensional sequence grading into oceanic crust. The Povungnituk and Lamarche Groups are composed of tholeiitic basalts, local alkaline and felsic volcanics and platformal type sediments intruded by mafic to ultramafic dykes and sills, while the Chukotat Group is characterized mostly by a sequence of olivine and pyroxene phyric komatiitic basalts. The base of this group consist of pelites and mafic sills that are both intruded by ultramafic subvolcanic sills and/or invasive flows that host the Ni-Cu-PGE deposits currently being explored and mined by Xstrata Canada.
The Povungnituk group volcanosedimentary sequence is intruded by several generations of mafic and ultramafic intrusions of which only the chonoliths or zoned ultramafic dykes hosts Ni- Cu- PGE sulphides. These include several deposits owned by Canadian Royalties (Expo-Ungava, Mesamax, Allammaq, Ivaqqaq and Mequillon).
The Lake Kenty area is located in the Povungnituk Group and this area is characterized by complex mafic and ultramafic intrusions into a volcanosedimentary assemblage consisting of mafic alkaline volcanic flows and clastic sediments that are locally sulphide bearing. Some of the intrusions are differentiated mafic to ultramafic sills and some are discordant, irregular, ultramafic intrusions that host the nickel sulphide mineralization. There are several surface Ni-Cu-PGE occurrences within the property limit with names that were attributed historically.
This property was previously explored by Amax (1968-1971), Cominco-Amax Joint Venture (1974-1980), Falconbridge-Oasis Resources Joint Venture (1986-1988) and more recently by Falconbridge/ Melkior in 2004. Historical work was focused mainly on the D8 and D9 deposits. The D8 deposit corresponds to a strong ground EM conductor and is identified in the field as a series of mineralized boulders. Further drilling by Falconbridge in 1987 showed the existence of two adjacent mineralized zones, namely the North and South zones, separated by 70m of gabbro. This zone has an EW strike and sub-vertical dip to the north. The best mineralized intersection is in hole D87-91 with 4.18% Ni, 1.28% Cu, 0.96 g/t Pt and 1.15 g/t Pd over 6.5m. The D9 zone also coincides with a strong EM conductor. In general, the significant mineralized intersection occurs at a gabbro-sediment contact. The best intersection was hole D87-84 with 3.64% Ni, 3.02% Cu, 0.480 g/t Pt and 3.7 g/t Pd over 0.9m. In both zones the mineralization consists in breccia-type massive and semi-massive sulfides with a large halo of disseminated and vein-type sulfides in adjacent gabbros. The D3, D4, D5 and D6 zones are associated with complex and discordant ultramafic intrusions that contain disseminated nickel sulphides.
In 1997, a historical non NI 43-101 compliant geological resource estimate of 817,000 tons grading 3.05 % nickel, 1.26 % copper and 2.6 g/t of palladium and platinum was reported (Falconbridge 1997). This resource (D8, D8 South and D9) has been delineated by a total of 58 drill holes.
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PROPERTY LOCATION
