Prophecy Platinum gains on drill results

Shares of Prophecy Platinum (NKL-V, PNIKF-O) shot up 10.24% or 43¢ to $4.63 on drill results from its flagship Wellgreen deposit in the Yukon Territory, about 317 km northwest of Whitehorse.

The most recent drill results from borehole WS11-184, on the eastern extent of the PGM-copper-nickel project and about 150 metres south of previous drilling along that section, demonstrate that mineralization continuity from surface to the footwall contact exceeds the 0.4% nickel-equivalent cut-off that was used in the July resource announcement. 

WS11-184 encountered 472.6 metres of 0.29% nickel, 0.13% copper, 0.46 gram PGM-plus-gold per tonne, or 0.43% nickel equivalent from surface to footwall, including 49.5 metres of 1.27 grams PGM-plus gold per tonne, 0.71% nickel, 0.45% copper, or 1.12% nickel equivalent.

The hole “expands the width of the mineralized zone to approximately 500 metres while exhibiting an increase of grade toward the footwall, as well as showing continuity along strike away from historic mine development going eastward,” Prophecy Platinum outlined in a press release. “WS11-184 also marks the first appearance of massive sulphide at this far eastern locale, indicating [the] potential existence of a new massive sulphide system in this direction where a 2.3 km strike of the Wellgreen intrusion east of WS11-184 has not been adequately tested by diamond drilling throughout the history of the property.”

So far the company has outlined two main zones of mineralization on the property-the East and West zones. The highest grades in the East Zone are found in massive sulphide pods and lenses along the base of the ultramafic body, while the best grades in the West Zone are found in inter-digitated gabbro and clinopyroxenite. The company believes the East and West zones may join in an area called the Central Zone.

Using a 0.4% nickel equivalent cut-off, the East zone hosts an estimated 14.3 million indicated tonnes grading 0.99 gram platinum per tonne, 0.74 gram palladium per tonne, 0.52 gram gold per tonne, 0.69% nickel, 0.62% copper and 0.05% cobalt. That makes for contained metal totals of just over a million oz. combined platinum, palladium and gold, as well as 220 million lbs. nickel, 200 million lbs. copper and 15.8 million lbs. cobalt.

The inferred resource for the East zone is estimated at 219.3 million tonnes grading 0.54 gram platinum, 0.45 gram palladium, 0.26 gram gold, 0.39% nickel, 0.34% copper and 0.03% cobalt. The less-explored West zone, meanwhile, has an estimated 69.9 million tonnes at 0.5 gram platinum, 0.34 gram palladium, 0.12 gram gold, 0.34% nickel, 0.38% copper and 0.02% cobalt

When the East and West zones are combined, inferred metals total 2.42 billion lbs. nickel, 2.23 billion lbs. copper, 191 million lbs. molybdenum and almost 11 million oz. combined platinum, palladium and gold.

Previous mining operations and production at Wellgreen (an underground operation ran between 1972 and 1973 by Hudson-Yukon Mining Company, a subsidiary of Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting Ltd.,) concentrated on the gabbroic footwall of the ultramafic body for semi-massive nickel sulphides, according to a July 21 technical report. But recent exploration has concentrated “on the evaluation of the potential of the property to host larger, but lower grade, tonnages of PGM-enriched nickel-copper mineralization for potential open pit extraction.”

“Higher-grade pockets of semi-massive sulphides (great than 1% copper and nickel and greater than 2 grams platinum), as historically mined by Hudson Yukon, are expected to continue to be located through exploration efforts,” the technical report continued. “These higher grade pockets, although not continuous, could be targeted in a potential open-pit operation in order to accelerate the project’s pay back.”

Wellgreen sits within the Kluane Ultramafic Belt, which is within the Wrangellia Terrane that extends from Vancouver Island to central Alaska. According to the technical report, “the ultramafic intrusives of the Wrangellia Terrane represents one of the largest tracts of nickel-copper-PGE mineralization, second in size in North America to the Proterozoic Circum-Superior Belt.”

Prophecy Platinum was spun off from Prophecy Coal (PCY-V) in June. Prophecy Coal owns about 22.5 million shares or about 45% of the company.

At presstime Prophecy Platinum was trading at $4.65 per share within a 52-week band of 30¢-$5.63 per share.