TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX-V-listed juniors Bold Ventures and KWG Resources on Monday reported that KWG would fund a C$2-million drilling programme under its earn-in agreement with Bold on the Black Horse project in Northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire.

Under the earn-in agreement, KWG could earn an 80% interest in any chromite discovered within the claims optioned by Bold from Fancamp Exploration, hosting the Black Horse chromite occurrence.

As recommended in the National Instrument 43-101 report commissioned by KWG and prepared to document the inferred chromite resource following last winter's drilling programme, the drilling programme would test the possible down-dip extension of the resource with a series of deep holes.

To this end, Orbit Garant Drilling Services had been awarded the drilling contract to use up to three drills. Mobilisation was under way and drilling was expected to start shortly.

KWG could also earn a 20% interest in any other metals discovered on the property.

Metallurgical testwork, which was ongoing, had produced encouraging results to indicate that the Black Horse chromite appeared to be amenable to reduction into metallised chrome and iron using natural gas. These results dictated that a number of transportation and underground mining trade-off studies be undertaken and those were currently under way.

Using a 20% cutoff, the Black Horse project currently holds an inferred resource of 46.5-million tons at a grade of 38.8%. By comparison, diversified miner Cliffs Natural Resources’ Big Daddy deposit – in which KWG has a 30% stake – has a resource of 32-million tons at a grade of 31%, using a 20% cutoff.

Cliffs, which had in November announced the indefinite suspension of its $3.3-billion Black Thor project, had also affirmed that it continued to believe in the value of the mineral deposits, which the federal government had estimated to top C$65-billion, and the potential of the Ring of Fire region.

It had been estimated that the Ring of Fire region would need about $2.25-billion in transportation and industrial infrastructure investment to be able to develop into Canada’s newest mining camp.