TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Project generator Transition Metals on Monday announced that a recent drilling campaign in partnership with South Africa's Impala Platinum Holdings, at its 50%-owned Sunday Lake project, near Thunder Bay, Ontario, has confirmed platinum-group metals mineralisation.

TSX-V-listed Transition said that of the six diamond drill holes completed, for a total of 2 546 m, four returned intersections containing significant platinum-rich mineralisation, including hole SL-13-002, which intersected 20.2 m containing 3.22 g/t of combined precious metals platinum, palladium and gold (PGMs).

Transition president and CEO Scott McLean told Mining Weekly Online from the sidelines of the Mineral Exploration Roundup 2014, being held in Vancouver, that the company had found a large intrusion similar to other intrusions in the area that were known to be mineralised.

Those intrusions included Panoramic Resources’ nearby Thunder Bay North PGM project, Rio Tinto’s Tamarack, in Minnesota, and Lundin Mining’s Eagle mine, in Michigan, to which the Sunday Lake project had shown similarities.

“What is really interesting about this project, is that it is a fairly large intrusion of about 3.5 km across; we are also seeing very high platinum numbers with a 1:1 ratio between platinum and palladium, and in many cases even as high as 2:1; the amount of PGMs in the sulphide is very high, so if we can get more sulphide, we are sure to get more PGMs; and every drill hole that has hit the intrusion, including five out of the six holes we have drilled, and two holes drilled by Kennecott in the past, is mineralised.

“It’s a new, reasonably high-grade discovery, similar to other intrusions in the area, and we interpret it to be a fairly large mineralised system,” McLean said.

He said project partner Impala would now have to make a decision as to whether they would participate in moving the exploration project forward or not, and this could result in Transition mobilising for geophysics work within the next week or two, with more drilling to follow later in the year.

Sudbury-based Transition said that drilling had outlined a mineralised zone, or zones, containing less than 1 g/t PGMs up to 20 m in thickness over a strike length of 800 m between 150 m and 500 m below surface.

Some of the highlights included 20.2 m averaging 3.22 g/t PGMs, 0.26% copper (Cu) and 0.11% nickel (Ni) in drill hole SL-13-002. The hole also included a higher-grade section of 5.37 g/t PGMs, 0.45% Cu and 0.13% Ni over 3 m.

The campaign had also intersected semi-massive sulphide veins along the basal contact, which returned up to 7.82 g/t PGMs, 1.98% Cu and 1.1% Ni over 0.4 m.

Transition said the footwall mineralisation within thermally altered country rock immediately below the intrusion returned 1.7 m averaging 4.83 g/t PGMs, 0.77% Cu and 0.05% Ni, which was intersected within a larger 9.7 m zone grading less than 1 g/t PGMs.

The company noted that the mineralisation has high platinum to palladium ratios, typically ranging just less than one to one.

The mineralisation is associated with a buried Proterozoic aged mafic to ultramafic intrusive complex interpreted to be at least 3.5 km in diameter. To date, only a small portion of the intrusive complex had been tested by drilling, with all holes that intersected the intrusion encountering elevated PGMs.

SUDBURY PGMs

Meanwhile, Transition and its 83%-owned subsidiary Sudbury Platinum Corp (SPC) earlier this month announced that they had found new highly conductive drill-ready targets at their Aer-Kidd nickel/copper/PGM project, near Sudbury.

The company announced its 2014 exploration programme would be focused on testing the targets, as well as expanding the geophysical coverage across the property with additional borehole electromagnetic surveys.

The company said it was currently relogging cores, and planned to resurvey historic holes in coming weeks. Results would be integrated with the geological model in advance of the 4 000 m of drilling planned for 2014.

The Aer-Kidd property is located 20 km south-west of Sudbury and covers a 1.3 km section of the Worthington Offset Dyke. It is located about 2.6 km along strike to the north-east of Vale's Totten mine and 4.3 km to the south-west and along trend of KGHM's Victoria mine.

The Aer-Kidd property hosts the former producing Howland pit, and the 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 believes that the property maintains excellent potential to host an economic Ni/Cu/PGM deposit.