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With a bird in hand, Northern Superior targets fall drill campaign to grow openpitable resource

21st September 2016

By: Henry Lazenby

Creamer Media Deputy Editor: North America

  

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VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – With a compliant six-figure inferred resource in hand, project generator Northern Superior Resources is preparing for aggressive growth campaigns this fall and winter at some of its Quebec- and Ontario-based assets.

After going into hibernation mode in 2012, with the intensification of the downturn in the commodity supercycle, the company is now dusting off its cornerstone Croteau Est project, in Quebec’s famed Chibougamou mining camp.The project has an inferred resource of 640 000 oz of gold at 1.7 g/t, with visibility to grow as a function of drilling, president and CEO Dr Tom Morris tells Mining Weekly Online in Vancouver.

A professional geoscientist with 30 years of experience, Morris outlines that the first phase of the company’s investment thesis is to successfully grow the Croteau Est resource, which looks to be amenable to openpit mining.

The company is budgeting between C$1.5-million and C$2-million to undertake a drilling programme at Croteau Est this fall. According to Morris, the winter drill programme could start yielding results later this year and early in 2017. If it is successful, the company plans to publish a resource update in 2017.

The Sudbury-based junior Northern Superior owns 100% of the project, located in one of the most prospective gold camps in Quebec. Morris highlighted the company’s positive relationship with the local Cree First Nation, noting that the entities have a predevelopment agreement in place.

According to Morris, the resource-containing Croteau Bouchard Shear Zone (CBSZ) is likely to be repeated elsewhere on the Croteau Est property, citing it as “a structural story” comprising four shear zones with four targets. The CBSZ has been characterised as “a squirt of the main system”, underlining the fact that the resource, derived from 64 drill holes for 20 643 m, is not the main source of mineralisation.

The CBSZ central component comprises a long section (Optiro) looking north through central CBSZ mineralisation, illustrating a central mineralised block, about 550 m in length, up to 350 m depth, containing two or more shallow 22° east-plunging lenses of mineralisation of 2 g/t to 5 g/t (or greater) gold – there are at least four of these. The deposit is 1.1 km long.

The company plans to further delineate the upper portions of these lenses through gathering channel assay data for trenches 1, 3, 4 and 5, all of which occur within the Optiro resource outline.

Further, the CBSZ deposit has a westerly component, comprising a pair of 2015 drill holes returning 1.45 g/t gold over 3.94 m; 0.97 g/t gold over 3 m; and 2.29 g/t gold over 5 m.

Morris pointed out that to the east lies an important area highlighted for significant potential gold mineralisation. “The area is directly associated with the north-east- to south-western-oriented Croteau Fault/D4 fault, from which gold is mined within the Chapais-Chibougamau camp.

Critically, Morris advised that Croteau Est also held other targets that remain to be tested. One possible target represents an eastward extension of the CBSZ, located 3.5 km to the west, suggesting a “tremendous opportunity” for additional ore lenses between Trench 101 and the CBSZ. The system remains open along strike to the east and at depth.

“Croteau Est is looking to become significantly larger than comparable operations in the region. It’s a bird in hand, with significant blue-sky potential,” he stated.

INTENSIFYING EXPLORATION
Meanwhile, in 2014, Northern Superior entered into an option agreement with Bold Ventures on the Lac Surprise property, in West Central Quebec, allowing Bold to earn a 50% interest in exchange for C$2-million in expenditures and 350 000 common shares, as well as a 60% stake in delivering a positive prefeasibility study within five years of the option agreement.

Morris advised that Bold was undertaking continued work on the property, and had even uncovered new showings.

Meanwhile, Northern Superior’s second phase of growth will hinge on becoming more aggressive on exploration.

Morris bemoans the company’s significantly undervalued stock. The TSX-V-listed stock currently trades at an enterprise value per ounce of about C$6, versus most of its peers which are more than C$50/oz.

Morris notes that, should the company be successful in demonstrating growth through the drill bit, the valuation should be more in line with other Canadian exploration plays. It should also allow Northern Superior to raise more money to be more aggressive in Quebec and to advance its Ti-pa-haa-kaa-ning (TPK) project, in Northern Ontario, during the winter period.

Morris believes that the TPK property, which comprises a “very large, district-scale, gold-bearing system", has the potential to be a new gold/copper/silver greenstone belt.

The project, which will in time become the company’s flagship focus, is structurally controlled with a gold-receptive splay shearing off a major inflection at the Stull-Wunnummin fault, comparable to the Malartic-Val d’Or gold district, in Quebec, located on splays off a major bend in the Larder Lake-Cadillac fault, Morris explains.

TPK has a unique geological feature described as a gold grain-in-till dispersal apron 24 km long, with most grains in pristine condition and at grades of up to 1 250 grains. Comparable projects include New Gold’s more-than-eight-million-ounce Blackwater gold project, in British Columbia, with the key difference being that TPK’s apron is almost six times larger, Morris advises.

Prospecting of the TPK deposit was, to date, mainly focused on identifying and collecting mineralised materials from outcropping boulder trains.

PROJECT GENERATION
Meanwhile, Northern Superior has been assessing a huge amount of geological data almost a terabyte in size in search of the next generation of projects. Since 2002, it has acquired airborne electromagnetic data focused on north-western Ontario, obtained from Inco, while much of the data was also inherited from its predecessor, Canabrava Diamond Corp.

The database consists of geoscientific data also derived from all exploration programmes generated for Superior Diamonds and Northern Superior Resources; geoscientific data obtained from a variety of public sources; and data compiled from an exhaustive ‘appraised value’ research effort over 70 properties.

Areas covered include parts of Quebec, Ontario, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

One of the 22 properties identified from the database comprises the Wapistan target, in northern Quebec, which holds about 10 408 ha of underexplored lands.

“We are actively seeking partners for our drill-ready properties,” Morris advises.

LITIGATION
Northern Superior has been locked in a bitter dispute with the Ontario government, which it lost in May when an Ontario Superior Court ruled in the government’s favour.

The company was seeking C$25-million in compensation for the work it had put into exploration on its gold projects near Sachigo Lake, which is close to the Manitoba border. Northern Superior had sued the province for failing to protect its interest on a gold exploration play, in north-western Ontario. The company abandoned its mining claims over a series of disputes in 2011 with a First Nation community.

In an August 29 release, the company said they are not required to pay anything to the province until their case is heard at the Ontario Court of Appeal and a decision is rendered.

It could take until late 2017 before Northern Superior’s appeal case against the Ontario government is resolved, but in the meantime, it has been handed a C$440 569.89 legal bill.

Edited by Samantha Herbst
Creamer Media Deputy Editor

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