The proposal recommends 8,500 metres of drilling, 80 line km of audiomagnetotelluric (AMT) surveying, and 1,300 line km of airborne geophysical surveying.
Initially, a 2,000-metre drill program will test the new Pyrrhotite West, Keel Splay, NE Speers and SEM West zones, which were all identified through 35 line km of AMT surveying last summer.
Pyrrhotite West, a large conductive anomaly associated with a major fault structure, the Sinister fault, lies just 100 metres west of high-grade mineralization cut at Pyrrhotite Lake last spring. That drilling was highlighted by a 1-metre interval running 30.7 grams palladium per tonne, 2.4 grams platinum, 28% copper and 5.9% nickel. A 5.7-metre section returned 9.5 grams palladium, 0.8 gram platinum, plus 8.8% copper and 2.7% nickel.
The Keel Splay zone, a subsurface conductive zone, lies downdip from the SE McGregor sulphide occurrence, a showing of platinum group metals 5 km north of Pyrrhotite Lake. The zone is associated with the projected intersection of a splay from the Sinister fault with the Keel region of the Muskox intrusion. The best of the McGregor Lake trench samples was one that yielded 75.7 grams palladium, 7.4 grams platinum and 4.3 grams gold over 0.35 metre.
The SEM West zone lies 750 metres northwest of the SE McGregor mineralized occurrence. The zone represents a zone of subsurface conductivity. About 20 km north of Pyrrhotite Lake is the NE Speers zone, a 2.5-km-long electromagnetic conductor.
The Muskox intrusion, 500 km north of Yellowknife, is exposed as an elongated north-trending series of mafic-to-ultramafic rocks. Funnel-shaped in cross-section, it dips gently to the north. It is 15 km wide in the north, narrowing to 600 metres in the south, and is exposed for a strike length of 50 km. The intrusion continues beneath cover to the north for another 40 km.
The Muskox project comprises the entire intrusion, including its extension beneath cover to the north.
The junior began exploring the intrusion in 1995, and by 1997 it had acquired the rights to the entire intrusive complex. Earlier this summer, drilling on the Keel-1 and Keel-2 geophysical targets returned low-grade values. However, results from the latest hole drilled into the Southern Keel sector returned a more encouraging 8.4-metre section running 0.95% copper, 0.86% nickel, 0.12% cobalt and 0.15 gram palladium per tonne from 314.5 metres down-hole.
Muskox recently dropped plans to form a joint venture at the project with British-based platinum producer Lonmin. Muskox gave no reasons for the termination, but Lonmin recently distributed 251 million in cash to its shareholders, saying it had not found satisfactory acquisition deals in the platinum business.
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