Wallbridge finds mineralization in an unassuming place

In an original move for a junior Wallbridge Mining (WM-T) went looking for mineralization in chlorine and came up a winner.

The company which is joint ventured with Pele Mountain Resources (GEM-V) on the Pele property in the northern part of the Sudbury mining camp has found platinum group elements (PGE) by targeting a breccia corridor rich in chlorine.

Assay results showed that along with the chlorine comes weakly anomalous concentrations of platinum and palladium as well as pathfinder elements.

While chlorine is not generally assayed for, the geology of the property made the idea prospective.

While the origin of the geological structure is magmatic, at late cooling stages vast amounts of water washed around the fringes of the intrusive body. The theory is that the chloride present served as a negative ion, sucking the PGEs out of the melt and formed a metal-ion complex.

The fluid inclusions then trapped the solution and are evidence for the composition of the fluids that moved the metal into footwall structures below the Sudbury gabbro.

The newly discovered zone runs along an 8 km strike length within a corridor that can be as wide as 2 km in the southern part of the property.

Wallbridge says the discovery resembles breccia rocks hosting copper and PGE mineralization at Xstrata‘s (XSRAF-O, XTA-L) Strathcona Mine and FNX‘s (FNX-T) McCreedy West Mine roughly 8 km south.

Wallbridge, which is running the exploration program, can earn a 72.5% interest in the property by funding through to feasibility and by arranging financing for building a future mine.

The company is now line-cutting in the area with a geophysical survey to start in January. Wallbridge plans to start drill testing targets by the end of the first quarter next year.

In Toronto on Dec. 19 Wallbridge shares were off close to 5% or 2 to 30 on 213,000 shares traded. Pele Mountain shares were off 1% to 42 on 157,000 shares traded.