EXPLORATION 1997 — A few juniors keep hopes high for a second Eastern Deeps

Although the crowd of juniors searching for nickel near the Voisey’s Bay deposit in Labrador is thinning, a few hangers-on are still searching for an extension of the Eastern Deeps zone.

That zone, a portion of Inco’s (N-T) enormous Voisey’s Bay nickel-copper-cobalt deposit, lies at depths of up to 1,000 metres and remains open to the east. Not surprisingly, companies are drilling deep holes in the peninsula east of the Voisey’s Bay property in search of that extension.

Absolut Resources (ALR-A), for example, plans to drill as deep as 1,500 metres at its Block N property. The company has budgeted $1 million for the program, which will test three targets.

Meanwhile, equal partners Columbia Yukon Resources (CYR-A) and International CanAlaska Resources (ICA-V) are putting the finishing touches on plans to drill six holes to 1,500 metres on their VBE-1 property, which borders the Voisey’s Bay property to the east. Targets for that program were selected during field work conducted last year.

Should the partners find an extension of the Eastern Deeps deposit, its proximity to Voisey’s Bay is expected to override any economic concerns about mining at great depths. “Inco would be looking at it very quickly,” says Grant Gallelli, a spokesman for Columbia Yukon.

While investors and explorers alike are beginning to give up the hunt for new Labrador nickel, Gallelli notes that Columbia Yukon is looking not for a new deposit but for “an extension.”

Two fruitless seasons have driven away many of the juniors who followed Diamond Fields Resources into central Labrador, and this season will likely be the last for those who remain.

Companies have failed to find anything significant, says Gallelli, because they are, for the most part, drilling shallow holes in search of a deposit similar to Inco’s Ovoid zone, which is near surface. He says success may lie in deeper drill programs: “If you’re not drilling deep, you’re not in the ball game this year.”

Re-drilling planned

Columbia Yukon and CanAlaska were forced to suspend deep drilling last fall when a 30-metre-long piece of drill stem was lost at 871 metres. The hole was capped and will be re-drilled this year.

Although the companies intersected no massive sulphide mineralization in 1996, petrographic analysis of a core sample taken from the suspended hole revealed traces of pentlandite and chalcopyrite.

Additional petrographic studies will be conducted on other samples before the start of this year’s drill program, which calls for up to 12 holes.

At VBE-2, south of the Ovoid zone, Columbia Yukon and CanAlaska will conduct follow-up testing on a gold discovery made last August. Assays from gneissic rocks collected on VBE-2 returned values as high as 18.9 grams gold per tonne. An electromagnetic (EM) survey conducted on the prospect delineated a strong conductor extending over the entire 300-metre limit of the survey.

Columbia Yukon earned a 50% interest in the VBE-1 and VBE-2 projects by making cash and stock payments to CanAlaska, and spending $900,000 on exploration over the past two years.

While drills are turning on both properties, further drill targets will be identified through exploration. The minimum budget for those programs, which will commence once the weather there improves, is $3 million.

Columbia Yukon also plans to carry out more work on the Yaco claim, south of VBE-2, which is under option from Yanks Peak Resources (YPR-V). Drilling there last year returned a 2.4-metre-long intersection of core with elevated nickel, copper and cobalt values associated with geochemically anomalous platinum, palladium and silver values. A second, larger anomaly, to the east, will also be drilled.

On its fully owned ML1506 block, in the Alliger Lake area north of Voisey’s Bay, Columbia Yukon will drill to depths in excess of 1,000 metres. Massive sulphide horizons intersected there last year returned 0.67% nickel, 0.63% copper and 0.124% cobalt.

According to the company, analysis of those results, and of government maps, indicates the possibility of deeper mineralization. Columbia Yukon will also conduct down-hole EM surveys during the drilling.

Although Consolidated Viscount Resources (CVR-V) holds property north of Absolut’s Block N, it has no plans to drill there. President Leonard Harris, however, says work at the property, which has copper-nickel showings, will likely be conducted there before the end of the year. The property has never been drilled.

Harris says his company recently received a joint-venture proposal regarding the property but that the deal was not satisfactory.

Project 122 of Lucero Resource (LCR-V) and NDT Ventures (NDE-V), the other property on the peninsula, is not considered a high priority according to NDT spokesman James Romano. Because that property, as well as the others on the peninsula, is several kilometres east of Voisey’s Bay, Romano regards the theory of an Eastern Deeps extension as “a bit of a stretch.” “We’re prepared to wait and let other companies do work [on the peninsula] before we spend two or three million there,” he explains.

NDT will instead drill Project 61, a joint venture with Takla Star (TKR-A).

The project, which is surrounded by Inco’s main Voisey’s Bay block, is more attractive, says Romano, because it lies south of one of Inco’s current drill sites.