TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Project generator Transition Metals on Monday reported that subsidiary Sudbury Platinum Corp (SPC) had consolidated its interest in the Aer-Kidd nickel/copper/platinum-group metals (PGMs) project, near Sudbury, in Ontario.

SPC had completed a $1.25-million cash transaction with CaNickel Mining, which resulted in the underlying option agreement dated October 1, 2012, that had required SPC to spend $10-million to earn a 70% interest, being terminated.

SPC is a private company of which TSX-V-listed Transition owns 57%.

SPC also had the option to buy all the property surface rights from the Greater City of Sudbury at any time before December 31, 2017, for $250 000 in cash and a further cash payment of $250 000 if a mine was brought to commercial production on the property.

Aer-Kidd is 1.5 km west of diversified global miner Vale’s $760-million Totten mine, which started production in 2013, and will ramp up to full capacity by 2016.

“The purchase of 100% of the mineral rights to the Aer-Kidd property is a significant milestone that, when combined with Sudbury Platinum's option to buy the surface rights, establishes full control of the property for the company. We are now focused on executing a significant drill programme that will test the highly prospective targets we have generated below the historic mine workings on the property,” Transition president and CEO Scott McLean said.

PLATINUM PROSPECT

The 260 ha Aer-Kidd property is located about 20 km south-west of Sudbury and covers a 1.3 km section of the Worthington offset dyke in an area with a rich mining history, dating back to the 1800s.

The property is about 2.6 km along strike to the north-east of Vale's Totten mine, which is currently in production and has 10.1-million tons, grading 1.5% nickel, 1.97% copper and 4.8 g/t PGMs, and is 4.3 km to the south-west and along trend of KGHMs Victoria mine, which is currently being developed and has about 14.5-million tons grading 2.5% nickel, 2.5% copper and 7.6 g/t PGMs.

The Aer-Kidd property hosts the former producing Howland pit and Robinson and Rosen mines, which were small deposits exposed at surface and were mined down to a maximum depth of 300 m.

SPC had undertaken a detailed review of historical geophysical and geological data and believed that the property maintained excellent potential to host an economic nickel/copper/PGM deposit.

Drilling completed by Canickel (formerly Crowflight Minerals) in the early 2000s confirmed the presence of mineralisation on the property to at least a vertical depth of 1 000 m. Additional drilling and subsequent borehole geophysics completed by Crowflight identified a number of untested conductive targets that extend to depths of more than 1 000 m on the property.

SPC geologists were also engaged in a relogging programme of selected core with plans to resurvey all accessible historic holes using advanced technology.

The borehole geophysics would further identify and discriminate prospective nickel/copper/PGM sulphide targets near surface and to depths greater than 1 200 m. Results from the work would be integrated with the SPC geological model before drilling starts.