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RLM (Copper – Zinc)
Snow Lake Area, Manitoba
Page Index:
Project Overview
Objective
Background
Brief History
Property Geology
Mineral Resources
Metallurgical Test Work
Infrastructure
2002 Exploration
2004/2005 Exploration
2006 Exploration
Future Exploration Program
QA/QC
Project Overview
| Ownership |
Thundermin 100% (subject to certain underlying agreements) |
| Operator |
Thundermin |
| Past Production |
Rod #1 and #2 deposits – 0.7 Mt grading 7.2% Cu, 3.0% Zn, 14.7 g/t Ag
and 1.4 g/t Au in 1970’s and 1980’s |
| Deposit Type |
VMS deposits in felsic-mafic volcanic rocks |
| NI 43-101 Resource |
Linda 2 VMS deposit – Inferred mineral resource of 11.8 Mt grading 0.3%
Cu, 0.8% Zn, 10.3 g/t Ag and 0.9 g/t Au (not NI 43-101 compliant) |
| Process |
Normal floatation process for recovery of Cu and Zn |
| Mine Type |
Shaft - underground |
| Location |
8 km southeast of Snow Lake in northwestern Manitoba |
| Status |
Looking for joint venture partner to undertake additional drilling |
Objective
The RLM property hosts the past producing, high-grade, but small Rod #1
and #2 volcanogenic massive sulphide (“VMS”) deposits as well as the
much larger, low grade, Linda VMS deposit. Borehole geophysical surveys
suggest that the Linda 2 massive sulphides continue further to the
northeast and that this would be a target area for further diamond
drilling. Thundermin believes that additional diamond drilling
should be undertaken on the property to determine if higher grade copper
mineralization, sufficient to support a mining operation, exits in this
area of the property.
Background
The RLM property consists of the adjoining Rod, Linda and McKayseff
properties that together comprise 34 claims and one mineral lease
covering the past producing Rod Mine (ML-029) for a total of 1124.8 ha.
The property is centered approximately 8 km southeast of Snow Lake in
northwestern Manitoba.
During 2000 and 2001, Thundermin and Aur Resources Inc. (now Teck
Resources Limited (“Teck”), obtained a 100% interest, subject to certain
underlying royalties, in the RLM property and formed a joint venture on
a 30% Thundermin/70% Teck basis with Teck as operator. On December 9,
2003, Thundermin acquired the remaining 70% interest, to hold a 100%
interest, in the RLM property from Teck in a transaction related to the
sale by Teck of all of its base metal properties located in Manitoba and
Saskatchewan by transferring to Teck 176,700 shares of Queenston valued
at $129,000. Teck retains a back-in right to reacquire a 42% interest in
any deposit found on the property, which contains a mineral resource of
at least 225,000 t of copper or copper equivalent. Should Thundermin
enter into a joint venture on the property with a major mining company,
Teck’s back-in right is reduced to 14%.
A Technical Report entitled “Technical Report on the Rod-Linda-McKayseff
Base Metal Property, Snow Lake Area, Manitoba, Canada, NTS Map Sheet
63J/13” dated December 1, 2005 by John B. Heslop, President & CEO of
Thundermin, and Howard R. Stockford, P. Eng., President of Stockford
Consulting Inc., has been filed on SEDAR. This technical report was
prepared for the purpose of fulfilling the requirements of NI 43-101 and
for general public disclosure purposes. Interested readers should refer
to this technical report as it contains substantially more detail on the
RLM base metal property than is provided herein.
Brief History
An enormous amount of exploration and mining work was undertaken on the
RLM property by various operators from approximately 1955 up until 2006.
This work is not set out here as it is described in detail in
Thundermin’s Annual Information Form dated March 26, 2010 that has been
filed on SEDAR.
The majority of the work on the RLM property was undertaken by Hudson
Bay Exploration and Development Company Limited (discovered the Rod #1
deposit, leased the Rod #2 deposit from Falconbridge Nickel Mines
Limited (“FNML”) and mined the deposit between 1978-92); Stall Lake
Mines Limited; FNML discovered the Linda massive sulphide deposit and
undertook extensive geophysical and diamond drilling programs;
Falconbridge Copper Limited/Minnova optioned a portion of the property
from FNML and undertook extensive geophysical and diamond drilling
programs; Thundermin and Aur Resources Inc. (now Teck Resources Limited
(“Teck”)) acquired the property in 2000 and 2001 and undertook surface
and borehole geophysical programs and diamond drilling; in December
2003, Thundermin acquired a 100% interest in the property and conducted
additional diamond drilling and borehole geophysical programs.
Property Geology
The RLM property, which lies at the eastern end of the Proterozoic Flin
Flon Greenstone Belt, is underlain by a tightly folded, shallow to
moderate northeast plunging section of weakly to strongly altered Snow
Lake primitive arc succession rocks. The volcanic rocks vary from
sub-alkaline, calc-alkaline felsic (dacite to rhyolite) to sub-alkaline,
alkaline mafic to intermediate in composition. The core of the fold
comprises mafic volcanics with subordinate felsic volcanics that are
overlain by a thick section of dacitic to rhyolitic flows and tuffs and
capped by andesitic mafic flows and fragmentals. Early volcanic rocks,
especially the permeable felsic rocks, have been subjected to
volcanogenic hydrothermal alteration.
The RLM property is located in the heart of the highly prospective Snow
Lake mining camp where eight high-grade copper-zinc-silver-gold mines
have been discovered and mined over the years. Of significance is that
the Stall Lake Mine, which lies within 300 m of the western boundary of
the RLM property, occurs on the same stratigraphic horizon as the Linda
2 massive sulphide deposit and produced 6.3 Mt of ore grading 4.4% Cu,
0.5% Zn, 10.6 g/t Ag and 1.4 g/t Au. Also, the Anderson Mine, which is
located 3.6 km along strike to the west of the RLM property, produced
3.4 Mt of ore grading 3.4% Cu, 0.1% Zn, 7.2 g/t Ag and 0.5 g/t Au.
The Linda 2 deposit, which is the largest base metal deposit so far
discovered in the Snow Lake camp, is a rod-shaped massive sulphide lens
(predominately pyrite) that plunges 20º-30º to the northeast. It has a
dip length of 150 to 200 m, ranges up to at least 50 m in thickness
(average thickness approximately 15.8 m) and has been traced by drilling
over a plunge length of approximately 2,200 m where it remains open down
plunge below a vertical depth of approximately 700 m.
Mineral Resources
The Rod property hosts the past-producing Rod 1 and Rod 2 deposits from
which 0.7 Mt of ore grading 7.2% Cu, 3.0% Zn, 14.7 g/t Ag and 1.4 g/t Au
was mined in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The Linda property hosts the large,
low grade, Linda 2 massive sulphide deposit that contains an inferred
mineral resource of 11.8 Mt grading 0.3% Cu, 0.8% Zn, 10.3 g/t Ag and
0.9 g/t Au. This mineral resource was prepared manually by FNML in 1978
employing the polygonal method, prior to the introduction of NI 43-101.
While Thundermin believes that this historical resource estimation was
carried out in accordance with industry best practices at the time,
Thundermin cautions that it should not be relied upon. An independent QP
has not audited or classified this historical estimate as current
mineral resources.
Metallurgical Test Work
No metallurgical test work has been undertaken on samples from the Linda
2 massive sulphide deposit in that Thundermin believes that the inferred
resources outlined to date are uneconomic.
Infrastructure
Summer or winter access to the property can be gained by car or truck
from Snow Lake via highway 392, highway 293 and a small gravel road
leading to the old Rod mine site. Exploration and mining activity can
occur at the property on a year round basis. The property is situated
close to existing electricity and water resources and there is
sufficiency of surface rights for mining operations to occur.
2002 Exploration
In 2002, Thundermin and Teck completed a drilling program to evaluate
the potential for a significant increase in copper grade in the Linda 2
deposit to the northeast below a vertical depth of approximately 700 m.
The deepest previous intersection, in hole FA-87, assayed 0.7% Cu, 0.7%
Zn, 8.9 g/t Ag and 0.8 g/t Au over 19.9 m at a depth of 700m. This
intersection represented a significant increase in copper grade over
that encountered in previous holes drilled further up plunge.
The 2002 drilling program successfully intersected a 30.3 m interval of
massive sulphides in hole 02-05W1 grading 0.5% Cu, 0.6% Zn, 9.0 g/t Ag
and 0.8 g/t Au. This intersection included two sub-zones of massive
sulphides that assayed 1.4% Cu, 0.3% Zn, 25.2 g/t Ag and 2.0 g/t Au over
5.0 m and 0.2% Cu, 1.6% Zn, 3.5 g/t Ag and 0.3 g/t Au over 9.6 m. This
mineralization occurs within a quartz porphyry that exhibits strong
chlorite-kyanite-biotite hydrothermal alteration which is typically
found accompanying base metal deposits of the Snow Lake camp. This
intersection, while not of economic grade, was viewed by Thundermin as
being significant in that it exhibits copper-zinc zonation and, for the
first time, copper and zinc grades over these widths have been
intersected in the Linda 2 deposit. Also, as a result of the 2002
drilling, the plunge of the Linda 2 deposit appeared to have flattened
and the projection of the massive sulphides may be closer to surface
than had interpreted previously. A down-hole geophysical survey detected
the massive sulphides and suggested an anomaly with very large
dimensions to the northeast which appeared to be an attractive target
area for future exploration drilling.
2004/2005 Exploration
3-D metal distribution modeling on the Linda 2 massive sulphide deposit
was completed for copper, zinc, silver, gold and for copper/copper +
zinc ratio by Mr. Rob Carter of Wardrop Engineering Inc. Cu and Cu/Cu+Zn
diagrams clearly show a strong, relative increase in copper content to
the northeast along the plunge of the Linda 2 deposit. This data may
suggest the possibility of the existence of higher grade copper
mineralization to the northeast.
2006 Exploration
A diamond drilling program consisting of 2,769 m of drilling in three
holes and borehole geophysical surveys was completed in October 2006 as
follow-up to the drilling undertaken in 2002. The purpose of this
drilling was to determine if economic grade copper-zinc mineralization
occurs approximately 300 m along plunge to the northeast in the Linda 2
massive sulphide deposit. RLM06-01 intersected thick sections of
hydrothermal alteration typically associated with other massive sulphide
deposits in the Snow Lake camp but undercut the down plunge projection
of the Linda 2 massive sulphide deposit. RLM06-02 intersected a 4.0 m
interval at a vertical depth of approximately 710 m containing 2-20%
pyrite, trace to 4% pyrrhotite and trace to 3% sphalerite within a
staurolite-cordierite-garnet-anthophyllite-sericite alteration zone that
represents the up-dip projection of the Linda 2 massive sulphide
horizon. The best assay in these disseminated sulphides was 3.45% Zn and
7.0 g/t Ag over 0.20 m. RLM06-03 intersected 14.9 g/t Ag and 12.1 g/t Au
over 1.62 m from 808.08 to 809.70 m within a
staurolite-kyanite-biotite-chlorite schist alteration zone. Similar,
high grade gold values were encountered up plunge in historical
drilling. RLM06-03 also intersected the Linda 2 massive sulphide horizon
at a vertical depth of approximately 760 m assaying 0.72% Cu, 0.27% Zn,
11.3 g/t Ag and 1.0 g/t Au over 15.57 m, including 0.94% Cu, 0.30% Zn,
17.5 g/t Ag and 1.2 g/t Au over 4.53 m.
Future Exploration Program
Borehole geophysical surveys suggest that the Linda 2 massive sulphides
continue further to the northeast and that this would be a target area
for further diamond drilling. The last two drill campaigns have
successfully extended the Linda 2 base metal deposit a further 500 m
along plunge to the northeast from the historical drilling undertaken by
FNML, however, to date the overall copper grade has increased only
marginally. As a result, Thundermin has not determined whether or not to
undertake additional geophysical surveys and another drill campaign in
2012 or to seek a joint venture partner to further evaluate the
property.
QA/QC
The design of Thundermin’s drilling programs, Quality Assurance/Quality
Control and interpretation of results is under the control of qualified
persons employing a QA/QC program consistent with NI 43-101 and industry
best practices. Mr. Anthony J. Spooner, Consulting Project Geologist and
P. Geo., was the Q.P. responsible for supervising the drilling program
on the property. All holes drilled by Thundermin were NQ in size. The
core was logged and the mineralized sections, where appropriate, were
sawn in half at a core logging facility near Snow Lake. Half of the core
was submitted for analyses to TSL Laboratories, an independent and
qualified assayer located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and the remaining
half of the core is kept for future reference. Blanks, duplicates and
standards are routinely used as part of the assay procedures.
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Technical Report on the Rod-Linda-McKayseff
“(RLM”) Base Metal
Property, Snow Lake Area, Manitoba, Canada, NTS Map Sheet 63J/13 dated
December 1, 2005 by John B. Heslop and Howard R. Stockford, P. Eng.
Consent Letter from Howard R. Stockford |
