River Valley PGM Project
- 100% owned by PFN
- River Valley Measured + Indicated resources: 91 million tonnes @ 0.58 g/t* palladium, 0.22 g/t platinum, 0.04 g/t gold at a cut-off grade of 0.8 g/t PdEq** for 2,463,000 ounces PGM*** plus gold
- River Valley Inferred resources: 36 million tonnes @ 0.36 g/t palladium, 0.14 g/t platinum, 0.03 g/t gold at a cut-off grade of 0.8 g/t PdEq for 614,000 ounces PGM plus gold
- On a PdEq basis, the Measured + Indicated resources contain 3,944,000 ounces PdEq and the Inferred resources contain 1,201,000 ounces PdEq
- River Valley PGM-copper-nickel sulphide mineralized zones remain open to expansion with continued exploration
Location and Access:
The River valley project is located in the Dana and Pardo townships
of Northern Ontario, approximately 60km east of Sudbury, Ontario.
The project is road accessible in Canada's premier Ni-Cu-PGM mining
and smelting district which boasts perfect infrastructure and
community support for mining activities.
Figure 1- Location Map of River Valley Project
Property and ownership:
River Valley PGM Project is 100% owned by Pacific North West
Capital.
The project is under two Mining leases. The Mining Leases cover an
area of 5381.1 hectares, including 4,756.2 hectares of Surface and
Mining Rights and an additional 624.9 hectares of Mining Rights. The
Mining Leases cover all of the NI43-101 mineral resources of the
River Valley PGM Project.
The River Valley PGM project was acquired in 1998 by PFN through a
number of transactions. PFN discovered significant PGM occurrences
on the property and entered into a joint venture agreement with
Anglo Platinum in 1999. PFN remained operator of the joint venture.
In January 2011, Pacific North West Capital Corp. successfully
negotiated the 100% acquisition of the Project from Anglo Platinum
Limited.
Regional Geology:
The East Bull Lake Intrusive Suite comprises a series of ~2.5 Ga
mafic plutons that occur along the boundary of the Archean Superior
Province and the Proterozoic Southern Province (East Bull Lake
intrusion and Agnew Lake intrusion) and along the boundary of the
Southern Province and the Grenville Province, within the Grenville
Front Tectonic Zone (River Valley intrusion) . These intrusions are
eroded remnants of layered sills that formed from tholeiitic,
plagioclase-rich magmas that were emplaced during a Paleoproterozoic
rifting event that lasted for several million years .
River Valley Property Geology:
The River Valley intrusion (RVI) is shallow-dipping, layered, and
approximately 900 m thick. There is an increase in metamorphic grade
from the northwest part of the intrusion (middle greenschist facies)
to the southeast part (lower amphibolite). The dominant rock types
are leucogabbronorite and leucogabbro with gabbros and anorthosites
. Along the Grenville Front, the RVI is either in thrust contact
with quartzite of the Huronian Mississagi Formation or is in contact
with mafic and felsic metavolcanic rocks of the lower Huronian
Supergroup where the nature of the contact is unknown .
Exploration History (1999-2008):
Between 1999 and 2008, Pacific North West Capital Corp as
operator of the project, in conjunction with joint venture partner
Anglo American Platinum Corporation Limited, carried out several
phases of trenching, surface sampling and mapping, and completed 8
diamond-drilling programs. During this period of time $ 22 MM
exploration programs were financed by Anglo Platinum.
2011 Exploration Program:
After Pacific North West Capital (PFN) acquired 100% of the
project, the company announced that it commenced a five million
Dollars, 15,500 metre exploration program for its 100% owned River
Valley PGM Project. During 2011 exploration, PFN completed more than
15,500 m of drilling and more than 140 line km of 3D IP geophysics
survey. Following is a summary of the program achievements;
Resource Drilling, 13,500 metres
- Focused in the Dana North and Dana South zones
- Infill drilling to advance inferred to indicated resources, increase grade and close gaps
- Proximal targets drilled along strike and down-dip to expand current (2006) mineral resources
Exploration Drilling, 2,000 metres
- Commenced on completion of the resource drilling
- Drill one new 3D IP chargeability target
- Drill two under explored targets identified from surface mineralization internally within the intrusion not drilled previously
Figure 2- Geology Map of River Valley Project
Geophysical Surveys
- During resource drilling, 130 line km of ground 3D IP surveys completed to generate new targets
- New targets identified, ranked and prioritized for drill testing ( Figure 3)
Other Activities
Environmental baseline studies
Discussion
Work to date at River Valley suggests that the best potential
for economic accumulations of PGM‐Cu‐Ni sulphide mineralization is
within the Breccia Zone. This zone includes the main mineralized
zone. The main zone occurs within about 20 m of the intrusive
contact with country rocks. This contact zone extends for over 9 km
of prospective strike length and hosts the currently defined
resource.
Figure 3- Target areas on IP map
Main Zone of the breccia‐hosted PGM
mineralization averages 20‐50 m in thickness, continues to depths of
greater than 200 m, and is for the most part open along strike and
downdip. In addition, the drilling demonstrates predictable grade to
depth with significant high grade intersections (5‐10 gpt 3E over
1‐5 m & 3‐5 gpt 3E over 5‐10 m) enveloped by broader (commonly >20 m
and sometimes >100 m) lower grade (1.0‐1.5 gpt 3E) intersections.
The continuity of mineralization and the
remarkable consistency in the geology and stratigraphy along strike
and at depth, suggests that there is significant potential to
increase resources on the property through further extensional
drilling away from the currently defined mineralized zones. Deeper
holes confirmed the presence of mineralization at depths greater
than 350 m (down dip and down plunge). There is a general
correlation between three dimensional induced‐polarization (3D‐IP)
geophysical survey anomalies and PGM sulphide intersections.
The intersections for most of the holes
correlate with relatively high chargeability, an indication of
disseminated sulphide.
2012 Mineral Resource Estimate (NI
43-101 compliant):
The detailed results of the new mineral resources estimate for
the River Valley PGM Project are presented in Table 1. This NI43‐101
compliant mineral resource estimate was completed by Tetra Tech,
Sudbury. The new estimate incorporates the 13,140 metres in 46 holes
drilled in the Dana North and Dana South Zones since the May 2006
estimate. This NI43‐101 compliant mineral resource estimate was
completed by Tetra Tech, Sudbury. The new estimate incorporates the
13,140 metres in 46 holes drilled in the Dana North and Dana South
Zones since the May 2006 estimate. All 462 holes were drilled at a
nominal drill section spacing of 25 metres to 100 metres on the
eight separate mineralized zones shown in Figure 4.
The estimated NI43‐101 compliant Measured and Indicated
mineral resources at a cut‐off grade of 0.80 g/t PdEq have increased
by 470% from the previous mineral resource estimate (Filed on SEDAR,
May 2006) to 91,339,500 tonnes grading 0.84 g/t Pd+Pt+Au, 0.06%
copper, 0.02% nickel and 0.002% cobalt. The compliant Inferred
mineral resources have increased by >1000% to 35,911,000 Mt grading
0.53 g/t Pd+Pt+Au, 0.06% copper, 0.03% nickel and 0.002% cobalt.
The mineral resources were estimated using Datamine Studio3(c)
software and are reported at a cut‐off grade of 0.8 PdEq (Table 1).
The 0.8 g/t PdEq cut‐off was used pending future assessment of the
economics and development potential of River Valley as an open pit
mining project. The Company considers the 0.8 g/t cut‐off value to
be appropriate because: 1) the PdEq grade is 1.38 g/t for Measured
and Indicated and 1.07 g/t for Inferred resources; and 2) rhodium
and silver are not included in the PdEq calculation.
Comparisons are made above to the previous NI43‐101 compliant River
Valley mineral resource estimate of May 2006 (Technical Report by
GeoSIMS available on PFN's SEDAR profile at
http://sedar.com and on the Company's website). The large
increase in the mineral resources reported herein is explained by
the combined effects of:
- incorporation of the 2011 resource drilling results;
- inclusion of three mineralized zones that were previously overlooked;
- use of PdEq rather than Pd+Pt cut‐off grades; and
- use of a length‐weighted average Specific Gravity value of 2.94 measured for River Valley rather than the previous value of 2.89.
Table 1- NI43‐101 Compliant Mineral Resources for the River Valley PGM Project, Sudbury, Ontario
Notes to Mineral Resources in
Table 1
1. The mineral resource estimates in this press release use the
Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM),
Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions and
Guidelines prepared by CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions
and adopted by CIM Council on November 27, 2010. The mineral
resource estimates provided in this report are classified as
"measured", indicated", or "inferred" as defined by CIM. According
to the CIM definitions, a Mineral Resource must be potentially
economic in that it must be "in such form and quantity and of such
grade or quality that it has reasonable prospects for economic
extraction".
2. For the River Valley project, a palladium equivalent (PdEq) cut‐off grade was assigned based on economic assumptions from comparisons to other projects, and was used in the resource estimations. Resources reported in this press release use a cut‐off of 0.80 g/t PdEq. Grades have assumed 100% recoveries. The parameters used to generate the PdEq value are provided below:
PdEq=( (Au grade*$Au*Factor1)+(Pt grade*$Pt*Factor1)+(Pd grade*$Pd*Factor1)+(Ni grade*$Ni*Factor2)+(Cu grade*$Cu*Factor2)+(Co grade*$Co*Factor3))/($Pd*Factor1)
$Au = US$1271 per oz.
$Pt = US$1885 per oz.
$Pd = US$896 per oz.
$Ni = US$ 9.74 per lb.
$Cu = US$3.00 per lb.
$Co = US$15.90 per lb.
Factor1 = 0.0321508 (converts ounce per tonne to grams per tonne)
Factor2 = 22.04622 (converts pounds to grade percent)
Factor3 = 0.002205 (converts pounds to ppm)
3. The mineral resources were estimated using a block model with parent blocks of 10m x 10m x 5m and using ordinary kriging (OK) methods for grade estimation. A total of eight individual mineralized domains were identified. The determination technique of the mineral resource is based on the combination of geological modelling, geostatistics and conventional block modelling using the OK method of grade interpolation. The block model resource estimate prepared by the Tetra Tech, was based on more than 96,980 metres of diamond drilling in 462 diamond drill holes. The assay data was reviewed and a composite interval of 2.0 metres was used.
Statistical and Variogram analyses were performed to determine the "nugget effect".
4. Rhodium grades were not estimated
by the OK methodology. Rhodium values were determined using a
regression formula based on the platinum and palladium grades.
Rhodium values are not incorporated into the PdEq value. The PdEq
value also does not include silver.
5. The QAQC protocols and corresponding sample preparation and
shipment procedures for the River Valley Project have been reviewed
and approved by Tetra Tech.
6. An NI43‐101 compliant technical report will be filed on SEDAR
within 45 days.
Initiatives
The Company intends to continue exploration at River Valley in
order to further expand the PGM resources and to discover new
resources and delineate sufficient resources to establish a
multi‐million tonne open pit PGM mine.
2012 Exploration Program will include but not limited to;
Metallurgical study, drilling, channel sampling and geophysical
programs designed to ultimately expand the current mineral resources
at River Valley.
Figure 4- Location of the mineralized zones in the Breccia Unit at
the base of the River Valley Intrusion, Sudbury area, Ontario.
The 2012
River Valley NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate Technical Report
can be viewed
HERE
Qualified Person Statement : Technical information provided on this report has been reviewed and approved for technical content by Dr. William Stone, President & COO of PFN, a Qualified Person under the provisions of National Instrument 43‐101
For more information call:
Dr. Bill Stone, President and COO, 416-368-5268
Ali H.Alizadeh, Vice President - Exploration, 604-685-1870
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