Panoramic Resources reported that Rio Tinto Exploration Canada has elected to earn a 70% interest in Panoramic’s Thunder Bay North platinum group metals project in Ontario, Canada, by sole-funding C$20 million of exploration expenditures over a five-year period. Rio Tinto will manage the project and is required to spend a minimum of C$5 million before it can withdraw.
The Thunder Bay North project is located about 50 km north-northeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario, and surrounds Rio Tinto’s Escape Lake project. The earn-in agreement presents the opportunity to consolidate the two properties. If Rio Tinto does not complete the earn-in, Panoramic will have certain rights to purchase 100% of the Escape Lake project.
If Rio Tinto does earns its 70% interest, Panoramic will acquire a 30% interest in Escape Lake, and a contributing joint venture will be established on a 70:30 basis.
As of June 14, 2014, Thunder Bay North had JORC-compliant open-pit indicated resources of 8.46 million mt grading 2.13 g/mt platinum-equivalent and containing 283,000 oz of platinum and 267,000 oz of palladium and underground indicated resources of 1.4 million mt grading 3.67 g/mt platinum-equivalent and containing 73,000 oz of platinum and 68,000 oz of palladium.
Fission Uranium has announced initial estimated resources for the Triple R deposit at its 100% owned Patterson Lake South property in northern Saskatchewan and has begun a $10 million, 63-hole winter drilling program at the property. Approximately 60% the winter drilling will focus on further growth of the Triple R deposit and evaluating nearby mineralized targets, while 40% will test a series of high-priority regional targets elsewhere on the property.
The Triple R deposit has an estimated indicated resource of 79.61 million lb of U3O8 in 2.3 million mt at an average grade of 1.58% U3O8, including a high-grade zone of 44.30 million lb in 110,000 mt grading 18.21% U3O8; and an estimated inferred resource of 25.88 million lb of U3O8 in 901,000 mt at an average grade of 1.30% U3O8, including a high-grade zone of 13.86 million lb in 24,000 mt at a grade of 26.35% U3O8.
Gold mineralization is associated with the uranium mineralization in the Triple R deposit and is reported as part of the mineral resource—38,000 oz indicated in 2.29 million mt at an average grade of 0.51 g/mt gold and 16,000 oz inferred in 901,000 mt at an average grade of 0.51 g/mt gold.
The majority of the Triple R deposit occurs at shallow depths of between 60 m and 250 m below surface. The mineralization is open in multiple directions, and future drilling will in part focus on deposit growth.
Hecla Mining’s 2014 exploration drilling program at its San Sebastian property in Durango, Mexico, increased total silver equivalent indicated resources by 46% to 37.7 million oz and inferred resources by 18% to 34.9 million oz.
The San Sebastian property hosts a series of precious and base metal-bearing epithermal veins. The focus of drilling over the past 18 months has been near-surface targets at the Middle and North veins and the newly discovered East Francine vein. The nearly 6 km of mineralized strike length remains open along strike and at depth.
Hecla has budgeted $3 million for San Sebastian exploration in 2015, with the goals of expanding the North Vein near-surface resource further to the northwest and southeast and of defining a new resource on the southeast extension of the East Francine vein. A number of parallel veins have been defined by rotary air blast drilling and trenching and also will be evaluated this year.
Aurico Gold has announced an initial NI 43-101-compliant indicated resource of 2.1 million gold equivalent oz and an inferred resource of 3.4 million gold equivalent oz at the Kemess East deposit 1 km east of the previously delineated Kemess Underground deposit and 6.5 km north of the Kemess mill facility.
The Kemess property is located in north-central British Columbia, Canada, approximately 430 km northwest of Prince George. Since late-2013, AuRico has completed 19 diamond drill holes (27,214 m) in the Kemess East mineralized area, with 16 of the 19 drill holes intersecting mineralization.
