COMMENTARY — Voisey’s Bay II:Expect the unexpected

Nearly 40 years ago, prospector Stan Hilditch climbed to the top of a desolate, humpbacked mountain in the Pilbara of Western Australia to make an

astonishing discovery.

Hilditch was looking for manganese deposits but, instead, stumbled across a massive iron resource. The mountain, now known to the world as Mt. Whaleback, proved to be composed of 1.5 billion tonnes of high-grade iron ore — a resource that is still being exploited through BHP’s gigantic Newman operation.

Such romantic, chance discoveries are an important part of mineral exploration history. It is often inferred that they are of the past. In contrast to the discovery of Newman, the road to other large-scale deposits is often long and complicated. Modern exploration is, more than ever before, geared to the assessment of the importance played by observation and experience, theory and principles. Computer modeling and modern technology add another dimension to corporate exploration strategies.

A particularly exciting aspect of the Voisey ‘s Bay nickel-copper-cobalt deposit in Labrador is that it was, like Mt. Whaleback, discovered by geological hammer during regional reconnaissance directed at another commodity: diamonds. Also pertinent is the fact that it was found at a time when Labrador had received the tag of having low mineral potential. Thus, the 1994 discovery near Voisey ‘s Bay provides a refreshing example of a recent success provided by chance, helped, no doubt, by intuition and faith.

The Voisey’s Bay discovery is having a spinoff effect in Greenland, where numerous companies have lodged applications for ground in the Precambrian Shield, particularly in that part of western Greenland that faces Labrador.

The region in question, between 60 and 72N (Kap Farvel to Disko) forms a coastline much more extensive than that of Labrador.

Companies now operating in this part of Greenland include Diamond Fields Resources and Inco. But the search for a Voisey’s Bay counterpart has also moved across the Inland Ice, to eastern Greenland, where a joint venture between Falconbridge and Platinova A/S will explore an igneous complex having some similarity in geological setting to the host rock of the Voisey ‘s Bay deposit.

A successful end to the Voisey’s Bay saga would be the discovery that Voisey’s Bay II exists on the eastern side of the Labrador Sea. But there is another twist to the tale that might create an equally desirable conclusion: fruition of the long-established diamond potential of western Greenland.

In 1995, Voisey’s Bay spinoff activity in Greenland generated its own surprising bonus — the discovery, in several areas, of diamond indicator minerals in stream sediment samples. The discoveries were made by Australian company Quadrant Resources in a joint venture with Major General Resources.

That project is the result of spinoff prospecting for Labrador-style nickel mineralization in the mid-Proterozoic Gardar province of southern Greenland.

These finds have revived interest in the kimberlite-diamond potential of Greenland. For example, Monopros, a subsidiary of DeBeers Consolidated Mines, has again entered the race. This welcome revival of interest in diamonds, which comes as a result of exploration indirectly attributable to Voisey’s Bay, completes a nickel-diamond ping-pong match across the Labrador Sea, and warns us, once again, to expect the unexpected.

— The preceding is from “Greenland Minex News,” the newsletter of the Mineral Resources Administration for Greenland and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.