Induced Polarisation And Magnetometer Surveys In Progress
Fortune Minerals Limited (TSX: FT) has commenced a geophysical programme over the expected east extension of the company’s 100% owned NICO Gold-Cobalt-Bismuth-Copper Deposit in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
The company contracted Yellowknife-based Aurora Geosciences Ltd. to conduct the initial phase of work comprised of induced polarisation (IP) and ground magnetometer surveys over known geophysical anomalies along the east strike projection of the NICO Deposit.
The objective of this work is to delineate targets for follow-up drilling where the company believes the NICO Deposit has been displaced by faults.
Aurora is conducting the IP and ground magnetometer surveys over five priority targets identified in earlier airborne and ground geophysical surveys completed for Fortune and the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC).
All five targets have coincident magnetic and gravity high anomalies with corresponding low resistivity indicative of a magnetic, dense and conductive source.
The primary target is a 1.2 km wide Peanut Lake Anomaly, where the GSC also identified a coincident magnetotelluric anomaly that was also highlighted by three-dimensional inversion modelling of the combined data.
The Peanut Lake Anomaly is centred 1 km southeast of the NICO Deposit and the underlying geology is largely covered by overburden and wetlands. Its significance was recently upgraded after road construction uncovered bedrock and boulders with mineralisation that is similar to the NICO Deposit.
Compilation of previous drilling in this area also identified five holes with gold values greater than one gram per tonne over three metre core lengths, including one hole intersecting three metres, grading 1.105 grams of gold per tonne and 0.355% cobalt.
The mineralisation unearthed by road construction and intersected in drill core confirm the continuation of gold and cobalt values east of the known NICO Deposit where the geology has been displaced by faults. The I.P. method is being applied to identify near surface concentrations of disseminated sulphide minerals that typically host the ores in Iron Oxide Copper-Gold (IOCG)-type deposits, including the NICO Deposit and Sue-Dianne satellite deposit. The NICO Deposit, located 160 km northwest of Yellowknife, contains an IOCG-type ore deposit with Proven and Probable Open Pit and Underground Mineral Reserves totalling 33 million tonnes containing 1.1 million ounces of gold, 82.3 million pounds of cobalt, 102.1 million pounds of bismuth, and 27.2 million pounds of copper.
