Project Submittals

Nickel Plats Project Summary

Introduction

Pacific North West Capital (PFN) is seeking a partner to finance exploration of its Nickel Plats Project, in north-central Saskatchewan (Figure 1). The Nickel Plats Project is 100% owned by PFN, 75 km north of the town of La Ronge, and underlain by Proterozoic age rocks. Nickel-copper sulphide mineralization is hosted in a small, elliptical mafic-ultramafic intrusion at Gochagar Lake.

The area of the Nickel Plats Project Properties has been explored intermittently since the 1950s. Exploration focused on the search for nickel, copper, gold, silver, zinc and cobalt mineralization. Nickel-copper sulphide mineralization was discovered at Gochagar Lake in the mid-1960s and historic (non-NI43-101 compliant) resource estimates were generated in 1968 and 1990. PFN signed an Option Agreement with the property owners in 2007. Its exploration activities to date consist of a site visit to resample historic drill core and commissioning an airborne EM survey.
 

Figure 1. Location of the Nickel Plats Project, northern Saskatchewan.

Access and Claims

The Nickel Plats Project properties are accessed via float or ski equipped aircraft or by helicopter. A historic drill route was established into the property westward from Saskatchewan Highway 102.

The Nickel Plats Project consists of eight optioned and staked claims distributed in two separate properties (Figure 2). During April 2007, PFN entered into an Option Agreement with Diamond Hunter Ltd (DHL) of La Ronge to earn 100% interest, subject to a 2% Net smelter Royalty in one of the claims. From then to 2009, PFN and DHL staked five more claims for a total of nine (Figure 2), all of which are covered by the Agreement. 

Figure 2. The claims of the PFNs Nickel Plats Project (in grey).

Geological Setting

The Nickel Plats Project area is located at or near a terrain boundary underlain by Proterozoic rocks of the Hearne-Reindeer and Reindeer zones to the east of the Archean Hearne Craton and northwest of the Archean Sask Craton. The Reindeer zone forms the core of the Trans-Hudson Orogen and is subdivided into the Rottenstone and La Ronge domains (Figure 3). The Rottenstone domain consists of mainly metasedimentary rocks intruded by tonalite-trondhjemite plutons and small mafic- ultramafic intrusions. The grade of regional metamorphism ranges from lower amphibolite to upper amphibolite. The mafic-ultramafic intrusions are the foci of PFN's exploration interest.

Figure 3. Regional geological setting of the Nickel Plats properties (outlined in green). The properties are underlain mainly by meta-igneous rocks of the Rottenstone domain.

Geology of the Nickel Plats Project

The geology of the Nickel Plats Project properties is shown in Figure 4. All three properties are underlain by gneissic to migmatitic metasedimentary rocks with or without metavolcanic rocks, intermediate to felsic intrusions and, locally, mafic-ultramafic plutons. The pluton at the Gochagar Lake Property is a multiphase intrusive complex consisting of a core of hornblendite and a margin of diorite that was intruded by gabbro. The gabbro is described as relatively fresh which contains xenoliths of the metasedimentary country rocks and hosts nickel-copper sulphide mineralization. The mineralized host rock types are norite, websterite, hartzburgite, hornblendite and even the surrounding metasedimentary rocks.

Figure 4. Geology of the three Nickel Plats Project properties (outlined in green). Legend: Brown = metasedimentary rocks; green = metavolcanic rocks; red = intermediate to felsic plutonic rocks; blue = mafic-ultramafic rocks.

Exploration History and Mineralization

Historic exploration on the properties has focused on nickel-copper sulphides and on gold. The nickel-copper sulphide exploration was carried out mainly by the Scurry-Rainbow Oil Company Limited in the 1960s, with prospecting, geophysical surveys, soil sampling surveys, and diamond drill programs and trenching of gossans in an area measuring 1000 metres by 300 metres on a small elliptical gabbro intrusion. A total of 85 drill holes mostly vertical holes (for 27,400 m) on 13 sections delineated the mineralized Gochagar A-Zone (or Main Zone) for a strike length of 330 metres, widths of up to 120 metres, and depths of up to 305 metres (Figure 5). The Gochagar A-Zone mineralization (Figure 6) consists of disseminated mm-cm size blebs of sulphide, net-textured sulphide and, in places, semi-massive to massive sulphide pods and fracture fillings. The sulphide minerals present are pyrrhotite and smaller amounts of pyrite, pentlandite, chalcopyrite and bornite. Nickel grades of up to 2.4%, Cu 0.7%, Co 0.23% and 0.005 oz/ton Pt+Pd (Table 1) are reported. Subsequently, other companies and individuals carried out mapping and prospecting and ground geophysical surveys intermittently until about 1990. In 1988-1990, McNickel Inc. drilled 8 angled holes on the Gochagar A-Zone. Despite all this historic work, the geometry of the host gabbro and the details of the drilling and assumptions for the historic resource estimates remain uncertain. Few deviation tests were performed on the drill holes and many of the original records are lost.

Figure 5. Detailed geological map showing the Gochagar Ni-Cu sulphide mineralized zone in gabbro and hornblendite.

Gold was discovered 15 km north of the Gochagar deposit during historic exploration on what is currently the north property of the Nickel Plats Project (Figure 4). A 1-metre channel sample returned an assay of 103.6 gpt Au and 7.7 gpt silver from the Cook Gold showing. The showing is hosted by a folded vein complex traced over a strike length of 18 metres. In addition to native gold, other minerals present in the veins or the altered wall rock are pyrite, chalcopyrite, bornite, malachite, native copper, pyrrhotite, galena, sphalerite, arsenopyrite and specular hematite. The Cook Gold showing remains to be drilled.

Figure 6. Rusty mineralized core from the historic drilling of the Gochagar Lake Ni-Cu Zone.

It should be noted that the Gochagar deposit is located 65 km south of the Rottenstone Ni-Cu Mine. The Rottenstone Mine property is currently owned by Canada Platinum Corp.

PFN Exploration

PFN optioned into the Nickel Plats Project in 2007. Since then, exploration work carried out by PFN consists of drill core resampling for modern assays and an airborne electromagnetic (EM) survey. Only a single drill hole was resampled. The assay results confirm the nickel enriched (up to 0.60% Ni) composition of the mineralization relative to copper (up to 0.16% Cu), presence of cobalt (up to 0.022%) and minor amounts of PGM (up to 0.3 gpt Pt+Pd).

In 2008, a total of 2284 line km of VTEM was flown by Geotech over PFN's Nickel Plats Project area. Mr. Laurie Reed (a renowned geophysical consultant) completed an interpretation of the VTEM survey for PFN. The survey did detect the Gochagar A-Zone deposit. Several similar responses were identified in the vicinity of that zone and elsewhere on the Nickel Plats properties. These targets remain to be geologically proofed and drill tested.

Qualified Person Statement:

Technical information provided on this report has been reviewed and approved for technical content by Ali Hassanalizadeh M.Sc. MBA, P.Geo, Vice President Exploration for PFN and a Qualified Person under the provisions of NI 43-101.

Proposal

PFN is seeking a partner to finance exploration of its 100% owned Nickel Plats Project in north-central Saskatchewan. An indicative exploration budget for 2013 is $2 million. The exploration program includes geological proofing of the VTEM airborne geophysical anomalies, surface EM surveys, 1500 metres of exploration drilling, 1500 metres of resource drilling, and borehole EM surveys.

Digital data sets for the Nickel Plats Project can be provided under a signed Confidentiality Agreement. Interested companies should contact Mr. Ali Alizadeh (VP Exploration) or Mr. Bill Stone (President & COO) to sign a CA.