Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI000000001851

Record: MDI000000001851

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Nickel, Copper, Platinum, Palladium, Cobalt

Secondary Commodities: Gold, Silver

Location

Township or Area: Maclennan

Latitude: 46° 39' 26.21"    Longitude: -80° 47' 51.63"

UTM Zone: 17    Easting: 515480   Northing: 5167100    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Sudbury

NTS Grid: 41I10

Point Location Description: Base of the headframe from GoogleEarth

Location Method: Data Compilation

Access Description: North on Victor Mine/Pipeline Road from Highway 86 approximately 3km NE of the Sudbury Airport, follow the Victor Mine Road approximately 5km and the entry to the minesite is to the W.

Exploration History

1993: Falconbridge intersected 5% Ni, 27% Cu, 0.35 oz/st Pt, and 0.35 oz/st Pd at a depth of 8,200 ft (approximately 2500m) below the surface. 2001: Falconbridge intersected 1.89% Ni and 0.71% Cu over 0.1 m at a depth of 1443 m and 0.26% Ni and 20.3% Cu over 0.3 m at 1561 m. 2002: Extensive drilling intersected mineralization grading 8.5% Ni, 12.98% Cu, 16.3 g/t Pt, 17.07 g/t Pd and 8.04% Au over up to 18.5m. A preliminary inferred resource of 6.3 million tonnes grading 21.7% Ni, 3.4% Cu. 2003: Drilling, bore-hole geophysics an upgraded reserve estimate of 7.95 million tonnes grading 1.7% Ni and 4.4% Cu. 2004: A feasibility study, additional surface drilling and an increase in the inferred resource to 13.2 million tonnes. 2005: Site preparation and the sinking of vent and main mine shafts. 2006: Construction of surface and underground infrastructure; shaft sinking was 80% completed. Falconbridge was bought out by Xstrata Plc to become Xstrata Nickel. 2007: Underground definition drilling and lateral development. 2008: Main production shaft was completed in January, lateral development of 10 540m completed by September with extensive definition drilling. 2009: Commercial production initiated with more than 500 000 t of ore mined reaching 60% of planned capacity. 2013: In May 2013, Glencore International purchased Xstrata. 2014: Glencore Canada has grouped all Sudbury activities with Raglan and Nikkelverk as Integrated Nickel Operations (INO). Reporting now includes aggregated production for all INO operations. 2024: Nickel Rim South placed in care and maintenance after delivering its last ore at the end of July.

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Sudbury Structure

Supergroup: Sudbury Igneous Complex, Main Mass

Geological Age: Paleoproterozoic   Geochronological Age: 1.85 Ga  

Geology Comments

Jul 07, 2015 (L Hall) - The Nickel Rim South Mine is hosted in the Proterozoic Sudbury Structure, specifically in the East Range of the Sudbury Igneous Complex. There are two main mineralization environments in this mine, one in the SIC-Footwall Contact Deposit (or Contact Deposit) environment and one in the Footwall environment. In the East Range Contact Deposits are hosted in Footwall Breccia, but are closely related to the Sublayer (Golightly, 2009). According to Morrison et al. (1994) sulphide mineralization collected in depressions along the contact between the SIC Sublayer and the brecciated footwall and was remobilized progressively due to both thermal and mechanical processes (Gregory, 2005). In the Footwall environment occurs as veins and disseminations that appear to be restricted to zones of Sudbury Breccia that lie sub-parallel to the SIC contact (Golightly, 2009).

Lithology

Lithology Comments

Jul 07, 2015 (L Hall) - The Footwall Breccia is an enigmatic, heterolithic breccia with fragments primarily derived from the local environment. The matrix is fine to medium grained, texturally varied of a sub-igneous to metamorphic character and commonly contains granophyre veins and dikes in proximity with the SIC contact. SIC Sublayer (Fedorowich et al., 2009). The Contact Sublayer is a mixture of igneous silicate matrix, inclusions of silicate rock and magmatic Cu-Ni-Fe sulphides with a broad spectrum of component proportions (Pattison, 2009). Sudbury Breccia is varied heterolithic breccia with fragments hosted in fine grained to aphanitic breccia that can be rock flour, glass (pseudotachylite) or recrystallized (Fedorowich et al., 2009).

Mineral Record Details

Mineral Zones - Size and Shape

Report an Error

We are continuously updating our assessment file / technical report information. If you notice errors in the data, please contact us.

Terms of Use

Please review our Terms of Use agreement for this data product.

Ministry Contact Information

For detailed information regarding this mineral record please contact the Sudbury Resident Geologist District Office