An updated in-pit resource estimate has boosted Marathon PGM’s (MAR-T, MRPGF-O) total resource at its Marathon project on the shores of Lake Superior to 3.54 million oz. platinum group metals (PGMs) and gold, and 4.75 million lbs. copper.
The expanded resource has the potential to extend the mine life beyond the current preliminary economic analysis forecast of 14 years, the company said in a statement.
The new estimate will also allow Marathon to consider a higher production rate of 22,000 tonnes per day over the April 2007 preliminary economic analysis base case rate of 18,000 tonnes per day. That works out to 7.7 million tonnes a year.
“This will significantly increase metal production and cash flow over the first ten years of mine life,” said Marathon president and CEO Phillip Walford.
The new resource estimate also includes rhodium and silver, which have not been included in the economics of the deposit but will be included in the upcoming definitive feasibility study. That study is expected to be complete next year.
The revised estimate puts measured resources at 45.9 million tonnes grading 0.87 gram palladium per tonne, 0.24 gram platinum, 0.09 gram gold and 0.31% copper. The total measured resource contains 1.86 million oz. PGMs plus gold and 314 million lbs. copper.
The indicated resource is estimated at 35.5 million tonnes grading 0.84 gram palladium per tonne, 0.28 gram platinum, 0.09 gram gold and 0.27% copper. The indicated resource contains 1.4 million oz. PGMs plus gold, and 211 million lbs. copper.
The company’s updated pit design has highlighted key areas for drilling that will continue to expand the resource — particularly the so-called “W Horizon” — which is located at the lower and southern end of the open pit, explains David Cook, Marathon’s vice-president exploration. The W Horizon has a strike length of 1 km.
“We have a really good geological understanding of the W Horizon and we wanted to treat it separately because it’s so promising,” Cook says. “It’s relatively easy to explore because it’s shallow — less than 150 metres deep. A lot of the drilling on that horizon is at a spacing of 100 metres to 200 metres and if we tightened that up, we could probably find more shoots of higher-grade material.”
The Marathon project is about 10 km north of the town of Marathon, Ont. — about 300 km east of Thunder Bay.
“There’s still a fair bit of exploration potential on the property, both around the known resources, but also to the south,” Walford says. “We have two zones (SG and WD) where we have encouraging trench results and preliminary drill holes.”
Marathon’s PGM-copper deposit is a Proterozoic layered basic intrusion located on the eastern edge of the Coldwell complex.
The mineralization has a total north-south strike length of about 3 km and dips 30-40 to the west.
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