Exploration Properties
Kirkwood
The Kirkwood Property is located to the west of Vale’s currently producing Garson Mine (Figure 1 and Figure 8). Copper and nickel were discovered on the property in 1892 and initial production from 1914-1916. The resulting production was 71,600 tons grading 1.53% Cu and 2.81% Ni. The mine was closed and flooded in 1916. In 1969 a new shaft was developed and a total of 2,488,000 tons of 0.99% Cu and 0.87% Ni was produced from the Main and East orebodies between 1969 and 1976. A total of 134,000 tons of ore grading 0.96% Cu and 0.53% Ni was produced from a small open pit between 1970 and 1972. The total historical production from the Kirkwood property was 2,695,000 tons grading 1.00% Cu and 0.90% Ni.
The Kirkwood property covers a portion of the South Range Breccia belt, which is host to Vale’s nearby Frood-Stobie mine, and in 2005 FNX Mining Inc. discovered the Segway Footwall Zone within this footwall Sudbury breccia unit. Drilling by FNX intersected a narrow high-grade Cu-Ni-PGE sulphide lens extending to a depth of 75 m below surface (including an intersection grading: 5.4% Cu, 0.8% Ni, and 16.7 g/t TPM over 7.8 m. The remainder of the footwall breccias on the Kirkwood property are not well explored.
Falconbridge Footwall
The Falconbridge Footwall Property is located at the southeast corner of the Sudbury Basin and contains over eight kilometres of SIC footwall environment (Figure 1 and Figure 10). Like many SIC footwall environments proximal to large nickel contact deposits, this area has historically been considered a strong candidate for hosting high grade Cu-Ni-PGE footwall deposits, such as those mined at other South Range locations including Garson, Frood, Creighton and Vermilion mines. The steeply south dipping SIC contact that is located north (and east) of the property boundary (at surface), eventually cuts onto the property at approximately 1 km depth. The Falconbridge deposit was brought into production in 1929, followed by the East Deposit that was subsequently explored by drifts driven from the Falconbridge Mine. Later, a production shaft was sunk at the East Deposit and production commenced in 1951.The Falconbridge Mine was shut down in 1983 due to a collapse from unstable ground conditions after production of 33,065,837 tonnes grading 1.58% nickel and 0.89% copper. The Falconbridge No. 1 Surface Pit and East Mine were closed in 1990 after production of 8,722,583 tonnes grading 1.15% nickel and 0.76% copper.
The property is owned under a joint-venture agreement between Aurora Platinum Corp (KGHM with 81.41%) and Falconbridge Limited (Glencore with 18.59%).
North Range Properties
Three exploration properties (Northwest Foy, Rand and North Range) are located in the north range footwall environment of the SIC which could host footwall deposits similar to the Wallbridge Mining Broken Hammer deposit. Broken Hammer was a Cu–Ni–PGE footwall deposit that consisted of massive chalcopyrite veins and low-sulfide, high-PGE mineralization. The 2013 Reserve for the Broken Hammer Deposit was 194,000 tonnes at 0.95% Cu, 0.1% Ni, 2.14 g/t Pt, 1.95 g/t Pd, 0.63 g/t Au and 6.68 g/t Ag. Sudbury breccia within the north range properties has the potential to host similar mineralization. The Northwest Foy property is owned under a joint-venture agreement between Aurora Platinum Corp (KGHM with 81.41%) and Falconbridge Limited (Glencore with 18.59%).