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Projects Overview
Sudbury Properties
Xstrata Nickel JV
Lonmin Plc JV
North Range Project
Rogers Creek Property
Duluth Metals
Project Photos   |
During the past year the 4X Joint Venture between Wallbridge and Xstrata Nickel, which previously covered three properties (Frost Lake, Wisner, and Parkin) was restructured into four separate agreements, (Wisner, Frost Lake, Parkin, Broken Hammer) in order to allow Wallbridge to pursue a wider range of development options for the Broken Hammer and Parkin resources and to allow Xstrata Nickel flexibility in funding the exploration of the other properties. Under the terms of the new agreements Wallbridge acquired Xstrata Nickel's 36% interest in the Broken Hammer resource on the Wisner Property, as well as the Parkin Offset Property to become sole owner, subject to Xstrata Nickel's royalty interest, on both properties. In return, Xstrata Nickel will increase its interest to 50% in the Frost Lake Property, as well as the remainder of the Wisner Property, excluding the six claims surrounding the Broken Hammer Zone, subject to Xstrata Nickel retroactively funding its 50% of the exploration expenditures incurred on these properties since January 1, 2005. Exploration on both of these properties will continue in Joint Venture with Xstrata Nickel with Wallbridge as Operator. Should Xstrata Nickel elect not to fund the expenditures on either of the Frost Lake or Wisner properties, its interest will be diluted in proportion to the unfunded expenditures. Wallbridge is also the operator of the Kildream and Blezard Joint Ventures. Broken Hammer Resource Property (98.5% Wallbridge, 1.5% Xstrata Nickel royalty interest) As a result of the restructuring on the Xstrata Nickel 4X Joint Venture, Wallbridge Mining acquired Xstrata Nickel's minority interest in the six claims surrounding the Broken Hammer resource. The Broken Hammer resource is a surface zone of vein-and vein stockwork-hosted copper-PGE mineralization located about 1.6 kilometres into the SIC footwall behind the Wisner embayment on the North Range of the SIC. An initial mineral resource estimate was completed by David Rennie, P.Geo.of Roscoe Postle Associates Inc. ("RPA") for the Broken Hammer Zone on the Wisner Property in November 2005. The total Inferred Mineral Resource, as estimated by RPA to NI-43-101 standard, is 251,000 tonnes at a grade of 3.80g TPM/t (1.56 g/t Pd, 1.62 g/t Pt, and 0.61 g/t Au), 1.00% copper, and 0.10% nickel. Metallurgical test work carried out at SGS Minerals Services on a 175 kilogram composite of Broken Hammer mineralization showed excellent recoveries of copper (Cu), platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd) and gold (Au). The work program also confirmed the presence of very coarse grained platinum minerals and demonstrated the amenability of Broken Hammer mineralization to a simple gravity/flotation circuit. Total metal recoveries were predicted at 91.8% of the copper, 89.4% of the platinum, 77.8% of the palladium, and 83.7% of the gold. A very saleable gravity concentrate was produced, with a grade of over 3700 g/t PGE (Pt+Pd+Au), containing 67% of the total platinum. A further 22% of the platinum was recovered in the flotation concentrate, which also contained 21.6% copper and 1.35% nickel. This would be an ideal feed for one of the South African platinum smelters currently treating high chromite UG2 ores, as it is reasonably rich in sulphide and platinum group minerals ("PGM"), but low in chromite. The excellent base metal and platinum group metal recoveries led Wallbridge to commence a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") or Scoping Study on the Broken Hammer deposit in November 2006. The PEA will be prepared under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Wardrop Engineering was retained to lead the study and prepare the mining component whereas DRA Americas and AMEC were retained to prepare the milling and waste management components, respectively, and SGS Mineral Services was retained to conduct confirmatory test work following up on the recently completed gravity and flotation tests. The Scoping Study will include design of the open pit mine, on-site milling facilities, waste rock and tailings management and completion of environmental baseline studies within several proposed potential tailings management sites. Capital and operating cost estimates will be prepared and included in a cash flow analysis and economic evaluation. A sensitivity analysis will be conducted using conservative metal prices as the base case. Frost Lake Property (50% Wallbridge, 50% Xstrata Nickel) The Frost Lake Property is located in the footwall of the East Range of the SIC immediately south of the Wallbridge-Lonmin SCJV Skynner Lake property and north and east of the CVRD Inco-Lonmin Plc's Capre Lake joint venture property. PGE-copper mineralization intersected by drilling and trenching on the Frost Lake property at Amy Lake occurs in the same belt of Sudbury Breccia, which hosts the CVRD Inco-Lonmin Plc high grade Cu-Ni- PGE discovery announced in early 2007. This new discovery is just 600 metres south of the Wallbridge property boundary. The property is underlain by Archean-aged mafic and felsic gneisses, which are cut by several generations of diabase dykes and extensive belts of prospective Sudbury Breccia. These breccia belts extend a total distance of at least 14 kilometres along the East Range from Xstrata Nickel's Nickel Rim South property near the Sudbury Airport to the Whistle Embayment at the site of the mined-out Whistle Mine and FNX's Podolsky Project. The breccias host high grade Cu-Ni-PGE mineralization at CVRD Inco's Victor Deep deposit, Xstrata Nickel's Nickel Rim South Mine and FNX's Podolsky deposit. The scale of breccia development and mineralization is similar to that in footwall rocks behind the prolific Levack Embayment where FNX is mining the PM Zone and is exploring a major mineralized system, which hosts their Levack Footwall and Rob's Footwall discoveries. Work to date on the Frost Lake property has identified footwall-style Cu-PGE mineralization along a strikelength of about 600 metres at Amy Lake and nickel mineralization associated with an Archean-aged ultramafic body 800 metres to the north of Amy Lake. A number of other very interesting geological targets have also been developed. At Amy Lake, low-sulphide Cu-PGE mineralization has been explored at surface by prospecting, mapping, and trenching over a 600 metre strike-length. The zone has been intersected in drill core at two locations over strike-lengths of 150 and 100 metres. Results are shown in the table below.
North of Amy Lake, massive to semi-massive Ni-sulphide mineralization was intersected in borehole WC-024 following up a VTEM anomaly detected during a regional airborne geophysical survey conducted in late 2005 and early 2006. The host ultramafic rock has been interpreted by surface mapping and its geophysical signature to have a strike-length of at least 1,000 metres. The discovery intersection graded 0.48% Ni and 0.27% Cu over 16.00 metres including three higher grade intersections of 1.62% Ni and 0.29% Cu over 1.10 metres, 0.06% Ni and 2.00% Cu over 0.40 metres and 1.47% Ni and 0.63% Cu over 2.36 metres. The ultramafic unit has a strong magnetic susceptibility and several similar anomalies on the property may reflect a similar type of occurrence. Work to date indicates that the Frost Lake property is highly prospective for footwall-style Cu-PGE and ultramafic-hosted Ni-sulphide mineralization. Both target types will be explored in 2007 using deep penetrating surface geophysical surveys with followup drilling planned on prioritized targets. Geophysical surveys such as Titan 24 IP and MT will be used to generate drill targets along the belt of Sudbury Breccia that hosts the Amy Lake PGE zone. These types of surveys have been proven successful at locating high grade Cu-Ni-PGE mineralization at CVRD Inco-Lonmin's Capre Lake discovery and Xstrata Nickel's Nickel Rim South deposit. At Amy Lake, the known Cu-PGE mineralization is open to depth and along strike. Fluid inclusion analyses are very encouraging and indicate that PGE mineralization has been deposited by fluids that have identical physical and chemical properties to fluids associated with footwall orebodies at McCreedy East and Strathcona Deep Copper Mines. The 2007 exploration program will focus on testing the Amy Lake zone for higher grade concentrations of Cu-PGE mineralization. Surface UTEM will be used to explore for extensions to ultramafic-hosted Ni-sulphide mineralization intersected by drilling in early 2006, just north of Amy Lake. Parkin Property (98.5% Wallbridge, 1.5% Xstrata Nickel royalty interest)
The Parkin property covers a 2.5 kilometre strikelength of the Whistle-Parkin Offset Dyke and is located about 3 kilometres north of the Whistle Embayment situated along the North Range of the SIC.The Whistle Embayment and Whistle-Parkin Offset Dyke are highly prospective as they are known to host mineralization at:
An estimate of the mineral resources on the Parkin Offset property to NI 43-101 standards was prepared in 2002 for Wallbridge by Alar Soever, P.Geo., of Watts, Griffis and McOuat, Consulting Geologists and Engineers, and reported Indicated Resources of 264,000 tonnes at a grade of 0.70% Cu, 0.65% Ni, 0.62 g Pt/t, 0.80 g Pd/t and 0.23 g Au/t and Inferred Resources of 87,000 tonnes at a grade of 0.65% Cu, 0.42% Ni, 1.17 g Pt/t, 1.07 g Pd/t and 0.55 g Au/t. During 2007, up to 3,700 metres of diamond drilling has been planned in 20 holes in preparation for a new resource estimate including a deep borehole (650 metres) to test a strong borehole UTEM geophysical anomaly that occurs beneath Malbeuf Lake. Pending positive results, a new resource estimate will be completed taking into account prevailing commodity prices. Wisner Property (64% Wallbridge, 36% Xstrata Nickel)
Extensive zones of Sudbury Breccia,which are enriched in chlorine and pathfinder elements, have been mapped along two principal trends (150o and 50o) that cross the Wisner property similar to mineralized breccia trends elsewhere on the North Range. Prospecting of these breccia trends in late 2005 led to the discovery of high grade base metal and PGE mineralization at the South and Southwest Zone locations as reported in early 2006 (see accompanying table). Diamond drilling was not able to follow the high grade mineralization to depth, although extensive zones of low grade copper-PGE mineralization were intersected beneath the Southwest Zone. The 2007 program will test a number of strong IP and geochemical/geological targets with up to 5,100 metres of diamond drilling in nine holes. Four of these holes are slated to test relatively shallow IP anomalies that coincide with copper and pathfinder element enriched zones of Sudbury Breccia some of which are similar to the geological environment at the Broken Hammer deposit.The remaining holes will target the southwest corner of the property, which is interpreted to be underlain by buried fault slices of SIC.A Titan 24 survey conducted in 2004 delineated a strong IP anomaly in this area, which appears to trend northwestward away from the SIC contact. A number of small high-grade sulphide showings have been found on surface in the vicinity of this portion of the property and they further enhance the discovery potential in this area. Several of the holes will serve as platform holes for deep penetrating geophysical surveys. Xstrata Nickel Kildream Joint Venture (65% Wallbridge, 35% Xstrata Nickel) The Graham property is the focus of the Kildream Joint Venture.The property ties onto Wallbridge's SCJV Creighton South property and covers about seven kilometres of prospective footwall rocks southwest of CVRD Inco's Creighton Mine. Mapping and prospecting discovered numerous PGE-bearing chalcopyrite stringers primarily where Huronian volcanic rocks are cut by scattered occurrences of SudburyBreccia.Mapping, prospecting and sampling of sulphide veinlets will continue in 2007 and be used to help model historical ground geophysical surveys and focus follow-up drilling. |
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