Inco considers sinking shaft in 1992 to explore Victor

You didn’t have to be a geologist to recognize the value of the rich copper-nickel intersections on display at Inco’s (TSE) recent annual presentation to the Toronto investment community.

Polished up for the occasion was drill core from the Victor discovery near Sudbury, Ont., where work crews recently pulled in a 19-ft. intersection averaging 37.66% copper and 3.79% nickel per ton at a depth of 8,300 ft. Also on view was a 26-ft. intersection averaging 26.35% copper and 1.75% nickel from a new zone that has doubled the amount of copper that Inco expects to recover from its McCreedy East mine about 30 miles further west of Victor. As Inco’s average mined grade this year is 1.19% nickel and 1.04% copper, these intersections offered hard evidence of the vast riches that the world’s leading nickel company has been “blessed with.” The company is already looking at the feasibility of sinking a shaft toward the Victor discovery in 1992 to determine continuity and minability of mineralization, says President Michael Sopko.

Given that it cost about $1 million for each hole drilled to that level, sinking a shaft and drilling from underground is clearly the only way to get a handle on the size and extent of the new discovery, he said. Having outlined preliminary reserves of 4.6 million tons grading 7.3% copper and 2.25% nickel in a deep footwall zone, Inco envisions spending about $40 million to sink a shaft to 6,000 ft., according to Walter Curlook, vice-chairman of environmental affairs. However, he said such a plan has yet to be approved.

The Victor find is on the northeast rim of the Sudbury nickel basin, 6.5 miles north of the town of Falconbridge, Ont., and 2,600 ft. south of a shallower zone containing seven million tons grading 0.50% copper and 2.17% nickel.

Information available so far indicates that the footwall zone strikes in a north-south direction and is 500 ft. from the boundary separating Inco ground from claims owned by Sudbury’s other major nickel producer, Falconbridge. A Falconbridge spokesman said the company has already drilled to shallower depths within the vicinity of the discovery area, but does not plan to duplicate Inco’s efforts. “We are concentrating on finding things closer to surface,” she said.

Nevertheless, as the mineralized zone on the Inco side pinches out on to Falconbridge ground, the two companies may have to collaborate if the Victor deposit is ever mined.

Alan Sauerbrei, Inco’s director of exploration for eastern North America, attributes the discovery to detective work based on an accumulation of data that, if read correctly, would lead anyone to the new find. “The big question is where does it go from here,” said Sauerbrei who claimed that mining at such depths isn’t unthinkable because Inco has reached its Creighton mine deposit to below 7,000 ft. “The idea is to drill another two or three stepout holes spaced 400-500 ft. apart,” he said.

Meanwhile, crews are also drilling from surface to determine the extent of the new copper zone at the McCreedy East project on Sudbury’s northwest rim adjacent to Falconbridge’s Fraser mine.

With 7.5 million tons of grade 7.27% copper, 1.04% nickel and 0.23 oz. precious metals already outlined at 4,500 ft., the zone is expected to double the amount of copper recovered from McCreedy to 2.13 billion lb. when mining begins.

After projected costs of bringing McCreedy East into production proved higher than expected, Inco is currently re-

evaluating the project while drawing up a new mine plan designed to include the new zone.

When surface drilling is completed next year, Sauerbrei said the company will conduct definition work on the zone from a drift on the 3,600-ft. level. The new zone has increased overall reserves at the project from 25 million tons to 32.5 million tons grading 2.27% copper, 1.58% nickel and 0.071 oz. precious metals.