Starfield expands at Ferguson Lake

Vancouver — Drilling has increased, by 5.6 million tonnes, the inferred resource at the Ferguson Lake nickel/copper/cobalt/ platinum-group-metal project in Nunavut.

Starfield Resources (SRU-V) reports a 22% expansion of sulphide resources above 1.5% combined copper-nickel and a 52% increase in resources grading above 2% combined copper-nickel.

Using a 1% combined copper-nickel cutoff grade, the inferred mineral resource at Ferguson lake tallies to 51.7 million tonnes grading 0.92% copper, 0.58% nickel and 1.44 grams combined platinum and palladium per tonne.

At a 1.5% combined copper-nickel cut off, the resource weighs in at 25.5 million tonnes grading 1.15% copper, 0.87% nickel and 1.86 grams combined platinum and palladium.

Using a 2% copper-nickel cutoff, the resource is reduced to 9.3 million tonnes averaging 1.37% copper, 0.87% nickel and 2.06 grams combined platinum and palladium.

The higher-grade zones (with a cutoff of 1.5% and 2% copper-nickel) occur in two principal areas of the West zone. The first area strikes for about 1.3 km and is contained in at least two parallel lenses that lie near the surface, generally not exceeding depths of 100-150 metres. The other zone is 100 metres west of the first zone and has a strike length of 840 metres. Mineralization generally can be found at depths of between 200 and 500 metres.

At presstime, three rigs were spinning, and five additional holes were being processed. Two rigs were dedicated to testing the West zone at depth and along strike.

The project is 160 km south of Baker Lake in Nunavut. The copper mineralization at the West zone was initially discovered in the 1950s by Inco (N-T). This find was followed up three decades later by a unit of Homestake Mining (HM-N).

The nickel-copper-cobalt-PGM mineralization is hosted in a west-trending, north-dipping, metamorphosed gabbroic unit with hornblendite bands. The unit is believed to be conformable with the enclosing Archean-aged, hornblende-rich gneisses. The gabbro is thought to represent a metamorphosed sill that post-dates the principal deformation in the gneissic rocks. The principal mineralized unit has been traced east and west of Ferguson Lake via bedrock exposures and by diamond drilling over a strike length of 10 km. The unit has been sub-divided into three principal zones: East 1, East 2 and West.