An updated in-pit resource estimate has boosted Marathon PGM‘s (MAR-T,MRPGF-O) total resource at its palladium-gold-copper project on the shores of Lake Superior to 3.54 million oz. of PGM and gold, and 4.75 million lb. of copper.
The expanded resource has the “potential” to extend the mine life beyond the current preliminary economic analysis forecast of 14 years, Marathon said in a press release.
The new estimate also enables the company to “seriously evaluate” 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 10 years of mine life,” Marathon’s president and chief executive, Phillip Walford, says.
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 completed next year.
The revised estimate is of a measured resource of 45.9 million tonnes grading 0.87 gram per tonne palladium, 0.24 gram per tonne platinum, 0.09 gram per tonne gold, and 0.31% copper. The total measured resource contains 1.86 million ounces of PGM and gold and 314 million pounds of copper.
There is an indicated resource of 35.5 million tonnes at grades of 0.84 gram per tonne palladium, 0.28 gram per tonne platinum, 0.09 gram per tonne gold and 0.27% copper. The indicated resource contains 1.4 million ounces of PGM and gold, and 211 million pounds of 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 for 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,” says Cook. “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, Ontario 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,” says Walford. “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 dip 30 degrees to 40 degrees to the west.
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