the eden project: Gold and Ni-Cu-Co-PGE The discovery of gold at the Eden Project, located 45 kilometres
challenge associated with this showing is to find the source of the
northeast of the former Ruttan mine, has paved the way for a
displaced sulphides, which to date remains unsolved.
new round mineral exploration in northern Manitoba. The project is easily accessed, as it straddles Provincial Road 394 about 65 kilometres northeast of Leaf Rapids. It is in an area that apparently has been overlooked by the exploration community, but already
While the project area hosts high-grade Ni-Cu-Co-PGE mineralization, the focus of current exploration are gold-sulphidebearing structures, inadvertently discovered while looking for
the property hosts both gold and Ni-Cu-Co-PGE mineralization.
the nickel source. There are no outcrops of the gold-bearing
The project lies along the Eden Deformation Corridor, about 115
out to date. Gold is hosted in pyrrhotite-pyrite-chalcopyrite enrich
kilometres east-southeast of Lynn Lake. The geology is dominated
silicified, altered, and sheared metasediments. The mineralization
by metasedimentary rocks that appear to be the root zones of a
occurs in parallel shear zones following an east-southeast trend.
former magmatic arc volcanic belt. Both primary lode gold and
Due to the presence of local abundant sulphides, the gold-bearing
magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE deposits form in this type of geological
structural zone is well delineated by geophysics for a minimum of
environment, and that is exactly what the Eden project team are
11 kilometres, with multiple parallel and splay structures indicated
discovering. They have been slowly and methodically exploring
by both VTEM and magnetic surveys. Biogeochemistry is used
the property for six years, and to date have completed five
effectively to screen the multiple geophysical anomalies that
small-scale drill programs, five biogeochemical surveys, ground
occur across the property and select those that are associated
magnetometer surveys and prospecting. The property is also
with anomalous metals for drill testing. Ground magnetic surveys
covered by a large VTEM survey that clearly delineates the large-
and modelling of the results are routinely used to provide detailed
scale potential of the mineralized structures. Creative application
targeting information to guide the drilling. The project has been
of some basic geophysics and geochemistry are proving to be a
drilled by the project team with their own equipment, using a
successful strategy for drill targeting, with all holes drilled to date
modified Multi-Power Pioneer drill, short holes (maximum depth
into the Gold-bearing structural zone intersecting anomalous
to date of 111 metres), and BQTK core size.
mineralization. The project area is underlain by a suite of metasedimentary rocks that are comprised mainly of biotite Âą sericite schists, quartzite and metawacke with some local calc-silicate bearing horizons. Most important, the property also hosts several sulphide-rich formations that have at least three different origins, including regional formational sulphide-rich beds that to date are barren, magmatic sulphides hosting Ni-Cu-Co-PGE mineralization, and the more recent discovery of gold-bearing sulphide lenses, stringers and disseminations hosted in large belt-parallel structures. The metasedimentary sequence is also cut by ultramafic and mafic dikes and sills, with varying degrees of metamorphism, alteration, and mineralization. The youngest rocks are granitoid dikes ranging in thickness from less than one to about 10 metres. To the north, the sequence of deformed metasedimentary rocks continues for approximately six kilometres, being cut intermittently by several large diorite bodies. The southern project area is bounded by a large diorite pluton, with granitoids further to the south. High-grade Ni-Cu-Co-PGE mineralization is exposed in a surface road cut in the northern part of the project area. The nickel sulphides occur at the contact between host metasedimentary rocks and an ultramafic dike or sill that is altered and metamorphosed to biotite schist. The ore is typical of displaced magmatic sulphides showing strong penetrative deformation. The
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PROPERTY PROFILE
Manitoba Mining Review 2020-2021
horizon, so what is known is derived from limited drilling carried
Some of the project highlights include: 1) Gold-bearing structures delineated by geophysics and geochemistry for a minimum 11 kilometres strike length, almost all of which has yet to be drill tested. 2) Several multi-metal, multi-sample biogeochemical anomalies coincident with geophysics anomalies, with only a small fraction of the property covered by geochemical sampling to date. 3) All drill holes in or near the gold-bearing structures showing anomalous to significant gold mineralization, along with minor copper, silver, and lead. The structure has been tested to a maximum vertical depth of only 75 metres, with drill holes restricted to a 300-metre strike length in the central zone, and one section on a splay fault two kilometres west of the central zone. 4) High-grade magmatic Ni-Cu-Co-PGE mineralization occurs in the property, with potential to discover more in any one of the myriad untested geophysical anomalies, or within the increasing number of mafic and ultramafic bodies being discovered within the project area. 5) High-grade Ni showing assays include up 2.68 per cent Ni, 0.09 per cent Cu, 0.08 per cent Cu, 2.90 g/t PGE over 0.37 metres,
