Pebble Creek Mining tables Askot resource estimate, applies for potash permits in India

Pebble Creek Mining (PEB-V) has released a National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate for its flagship project, the Askot massive sulphide polymetallic property in Uttarakhand state in northern India. At a net smelter return cutoff of $100 per tonne, indicated resources are 1.86 million tonnes grading about 2.6% copper, 5.8% zinc, 3.8% lead, 38 grams per tonne silver, and 0.5 gram per tonne gold. Inferred resources are 149,000 tonnes grading about 1.7% copper, 4.6% zinc, 1.9% lead, 29 grams per tonne silver, and 0.4 gram per tonne gold. An NI 43-101 technical report is scheduled for September.

Geophysical and geochemical testing found anomalies along another 3,000 metres of strike length, and the company is planning more drilling in the fall. Pebble Creek says that a characteristic of volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits is that they often occur in multiple lenses, so clearly the company is hoping to find more mineralized lenses.

Pebble Creek is also hoping to ride the red-hot potash market, having applied for a potash reconnaissance permit on a massive land package of 6,000 sq. km in the Nagaur-Ganganagar basin, located in a desert in northwestern Rajasthan state in India. The application is currently being processed by the state government.

The Nagaur-Ganganagar basin occupies 100,000 sq. km and has 9 evaporite sub-basins. Evaporites are mineral salts that precipitated in brine pools as seawater evaporated. The sub-basins range in diameter from about 1,000 to 3,000 metres.

The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has drilled 72 holes totaling 62,000 metres, concluding that the Hanseran evaporite group has a total thickness of 100 to 650 metres. It contains seven cycles of halite (sodium chloride) formations at depths of 300 to 1,200 metres. A cycle usually has a thick halite bed, with potash beds at or near the top. The most common potash minerals in the Nagaur-Ganganagar basin are polyhalite, sylvinite, sylvite, langbeinite and carnallite.

The company’s reconnaissance permit applications are in three non-contiguous blocks of 2,000 square kilometres each, covering seven of the nine sub-basins (the Satipura, Bharusari, Lakhasar, Arjunsar, Jaitpura, Malkisar and Hanseran sub-basins). The Satipura, Bharusari and Lakhasar sub-basins were reported by GSI as having the highest grades and thickest deposits, with potash beds found mainly at depths of between 500 and 750 metres.

Based on its drilling, the GSI has provided historic resource estimates, which should be treated with caution for a number of reasons. Firstly, only 72 holes were drilled, in an uneven pattern, to explore an area of 50,000 sq. km. Secondly, mineability of the mineral has not been established. Finally, availability of water in a desert area is problematic, and the water table is brackish at best.

GSI estimates a probable resource of 400 million tonnes potash containing 4.6% potassium (half of which is in Satipura, and the remainder in Bharusari and Lakhasar), and a possible resource of 2 billion tonnes potash containing 4.6% potassium. The words “probable” and “possible” do not correspond to present-day mineral resource estimate standards.

Once received, a reconnaissance permit can be converted to a prospecting license and then to a mining lease. There are a number of conditions attached to each conversion, and it must be approved by the government.