Falco drilling Kidd Creek zone

Recent drilling by Falconbridge (TSE) has returned encouraging results from the company’s Kidd Creek No. 3 mine near Timmins, Ont.

Four new holes, drilled between the 2,380- and 3,000-metre levels, intersected mineralization with an average grade of 3% copper, 4.8% zinc, 0.85% lead and 180 grams silver per tonne over an average estimated horizontal width of 50 metres. An additional 50 metres of lower-grade material were also intersected.

The company reports that on the 2,070-metre level, work is under way to provide a better location to explore and evaluate “the very large mineralized zone indicated by the above results.” Drilling from the new location is expected to begin next summer and continue for at least 12 months. Falconbridge says “interesting” results were obtained southeast of the Onaping mine in Sudbury, Ont., where a recent surface drill hole intersected 2.51% nickel and 1.97% copper over 16 metres at a depth of 2,300 metres below surface.

Farther afield, the major received encouraging drill results from the Biankouma nickel laterite joint venture in Ivory Coast. For three of the prospects drilled, the estimated in situ resource is 54 million tonnes grading 2% nickel and 0.07% cobalt.

This resource is in addition to the deposit at Sipilou, previously estimated at 51 million tonnes of 1.8% nickel and 0.10% cobalt. Some preliminary metallurgical work has been done, and the results indicate the material may be suitable for the production of ferronickel using the Falcondo process. Drilling aimed at further evaluating these deposits and exploring other prospects will resume in October.

On the financial front, Falconbridge reported earnings of $55.5 million for the 1994 third quarter, compared with a loss of $11.4 million in the same period in 1993.

President Frank Pickard says nickel prices continued to improve during the quarter, driven by strong demand from the stainless steel industry. “We expect Western World stainless steel production to increase by about 10% this year, while nickel consumption is forecast to increase by 9%,” he says. “Fourth-quarter fundamentals are the strongest the nickel industry has experienced in many years.”

On the operations side, the company’s mines and smelter in Sudbury, and its refinery in Norway, operated at capacity during the quarter. Kidd Creek’s production continued to improve through the quarter, but it remains below expectation. Kidd Creek’s income contribution for the three months ended Sept. 30 was $16.7 million, which was $15.2 million higher than in the same period a year earlier. The increase was attributed to higher prices and a more favorable exchange rate.