Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI000000000605

Record: MDI000000000605

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Nickel

Secondary Commodities: Copper, Cobalt, Palladium, Platinum

Location

Township or Area: Bannockburn

Latitude: 47° 58' 42.43"    Longitude: -80° 54' 13.15"

UTM Zone: 17    Easting: 507190   Northing: 5313910.005    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Kirkland Lake

NTS Grid: 41P15NW

Point Location Description: Stripped area exposing mineralized zone.

Location Method: Field Visit with GPS

Access Description: Several properties containing nickel-copper mineralization are located in west-central Bannockburn Township, approximately 27 km west of Matachewan. The occurrences include the Thalweg Zone, the Bannockburn-Rahn Lake Zone, and the C-Zone. Access is via Hwy 566 west from Matatchewan. The C-Zone is about 5 km south of the highway.

Exploration History

Exploration began in the area prior to 1920 with interest in gold and asbestos. A limited amount of asbestos was mined from the Rahn Lake deposit in the late 1930s. The area saw another period of asbestos exploration in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Drilling during this period identified disseminated sulphide in olivine cumulate rocks, though it appears none of the core was assayed for base metals. Between 1995 and 1999, Outokumpu Mines systematically staked and explored the property and discovered 2 Kambalda-style and one Mount Keith-style mineralized zones. Mustang Minerals Corp. acquired the properties from Outokumpu Mines in 2003. 2003-04: Mustang Minerals Corp (later Grid Metals Corp) carried out stripping, sampling, and drilled 53 DDH totalling 12,095 m. The C-Zone was visited during the summer of 2005. This zone was discovered by overburden stripping over an EM conductor. 2022: Canada Nickel Corp. acquired the property from Grid Metals.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Abitibi

Terrane: Wawa-Abitibi

Belt: Abitibi

Tectonic Assemblage: Tisdale

Geological Age: Archean  

Geology Comments

Nov 13, 2008 (D Guidon) - The property consists of a complex sequence of calc-alkalic intermediate to felsic volcanic rocks, mafic volcanic rocks, komatiitic basalt to dunite, silicate to sulphide iron formation, gabbro intrusions, and a series of sedimentary rocks (Lapierre 2003; Brereton 2003). Houlé, Préfontaine and Berger (2005) describe the ultramafic geology as follows: In the following section, the map area is divided into three blocks based on geological context (map patterns) and major breaks: the Montrose-Bannockburn Block, the Powell Block, and the Cairo Block. The Montrose-Bannockburn Block corresponds to the area located west of the Mistinikon Lake fault. The Powell Block corresponds to the area located between the Mistinikon Lake fault and the Montreal River fault. The Cairo Block corresponds to the area located east of the Montreal River fault. Komatiitic rocks occur in different proportions in each of these blocks. Komatiitic rocks are relatively abundant in the Montrose-Bannockburn Block and are composed of up to 4% of the supracrustal rocks. All komatiitic rock outcrops in this block are distributed over eleven komatiite occurrences. Only three komatiite occurrences possess enough exposure to evaluate their textural facies variations. These komatiite occurrences correspond, respectively, to the Thalweg Zone, the Bannockburn-Rahn Lake Zone, and the C-Zone. Overall, the komatiitic rocks in this sector exhibit several different textural facies such as massive (aphyric and cumulate), spinifex texture, flow breccia, and polysutured jointing. In the Montrose-Bannockburn Block, massive cumulate komatiite and lesser massive aphyric komatiite are the dominant textural facies that occur throughout the area.

Lithology

Lithology Comments

Oct 04, 2022 (Therese Pettigrew) - A thorough description of the C-Zone is provided by Taranovic et al. (2012): “The mineralized zone is up to 2.5 m thick and comprises (from base to top) massive to semi-massive, net-textured, and disseminated sulfide facies characterized by a pyrrhotite-pentlandite-chalcopyrite-magnetite assemblage. The massive sulfide zone contains an anastomosing network of dextral and sinistral shears that are oriented broadly subparallel to the contacts with the footwall dacite and hanging-wall andesite. Some contacts with underlying dacites are sheared, but others are scalloped and bordered by skeletal-euhedral Fe-rich chromites and appear to be primary magmatic features. The footwall rocks grade from chloritized dacites within 20 to 30 cm of the contact into massive and brecciated plagioclase-phyric dacites farther away from the contact. The host unit is up to 8 m thick and comprises massive olivine and ortho to mesocumulate komatiite in the eastern and central parts and a texturally heterolithic komatiite breccia in the western part. The breccia is composed of subrounded to subangular clasts 1 to 30 cm in length that exhibit mainly fine (<2 mm) olivine porphyritic or fine (<1 cm) random olivine spinifex textures, within a fine-grained, locally spinifex-textured ultramafic matrix. The absence of evidence for a pyroclastic origin and the presence of a spinifex-textured matrix suggest that the breccia is autoclastic. The hanging-wall rocks are barren differentiated (spinifex/cumulate) komatiite flows (total thickness of the lithostratigraphic package ~22 m) and variolitic pillowed andesites (total thickness >80 m). The komatiitic sequence at the C-Zone is much thinner than most other sequences within the Tisdale volcanic Episode (2710 to 2704 Ma) and is oriented oblique to the northwest trend of the regional stratigraphy, but all contacts appear conformable and all younging indicators are uniformly to the south-southeast, suggesting that the local sequence is intact. The C-Zone is similar in many respects to other Type I (Kambalda-type) komatiite-associated Ni-Cu-(PGE) deposits in the Abitibi greenstone belt but differs by not being confined within a well-developed footwall embayment and in being partly hosted by komatiitic breccias. The C-Zone Ni-Cu-(PGE) mineralization appears to be hosted in the eastern part of the stripped exposure by a thin lava pathway and in the western part by breccias formed via lateral breakout and roof collapse”.

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Nov 13, 2008 (D Guidon) - The C-Zone was visited during the summer of 2005. This zone was discovered by overburden stripping over an EM conductor. The zone trends about 070 degrees and dips steeply to the south and appears to face south. It appears discordant to the surrounding geology (Houlé, Préfontaine and Berger 2005). In section, the mineralized zone is underlain by dacite, which is overlain by up to 8 m of massive and disseminated to blebby sulphides. This, in turn, is overlain by about 15 m of brecciated komatiite, followed by dacite. Diamond drilling by Mustang Minerals Corp. determined that the zone plunges to the east. It was intersected over a strike length of about 225 m and to a vertical depth of about 225 m. Surface samples ranged up to 4.85% Ni and drill results up to 3.25% Ni. Most of the drill intersects were around 1.5 m in width.

Oct 04, 2022 (Therese Pettigrew) - Nickel sulphide mineralization is interpreted as ultramafic extrusive komatiite-hosted (Jobin-Bevins and Davis, 2021). An initial program of selective surface grab sampling by Mustang Minerals yielded nickel concentrations in semi-massive to massive sulphide in the 2% to 5% Ni range, with concentrations of generally less than 1% Ni in more disseminated material. Copper and cobalt correlate closely with elevated nickel values ranging from 67 to 5020 ppm Cu and 28 to 1086 ppm Co. Palladium ranged from 14 to 1370 ppb Pd and platinum from 8 to 390 ppb Pt. Selective surface grab samples yielded maximum values of 4.85% Ni, 0.50% Cu, 0.11% Co, 0.29 g/t Pt, 0.84 g/t Pd and 0.07 g/t Au, typical of komatiitic-hosted deposits identified in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt. The most advanced Kambalda-style massive sulfide target on the Property is the C-Zone which typically averages 1 to 3 m in thickness with the maximum nickel grade, from drill hole MBC4-23, reported as 3.26% Ni over 1.10 metres. Drilling on the C-Zone and C-Zone Offset to date has identified nickel sulphide mineralization over approximately 150 m of strike and ranging between 0.5 to 8 m wide (estimated true thickness) to a depth of approximately 400 metres. Sulphide mineralization appears to have a vertical to steep south dip and an eastward plunge and the lower boundary of the C-Zone has not been defined. The sulphide mineralization consists of disseminated, net-textured to massive and semi-massive pyrrhotite, with lesser pentlandite and streaks of chalcopyrite. Sulphide mineralization tends to occur at, or in close proximity to, the contact of the peridotitic komatiites and the andesitic volcanics. The best mineralization to date occurs along the west end of the surface exposure where semi-massive to massive nickel sulphide mineralization is up to 2.5 m in apparent thickness (Jobin-Bevans and Davis, 2021).

Mineral Record Details

References

Journal - Bannockburn nickel property, summary of exploration; report for Mustang Minerals Corp. 10p.

Publication Number: Date: 2003

Author: Lapierre, K.

Publisher Name:

Location:

Publication - Independent NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Bannockburn Nickel Sulphide Project

Publication Number: 2021 NI 43-101 Date: 2021

Author: Jobin-Bevans, S., Davis, P.

Publisher Name: Caracle Creek for Grid Metals Corp.

Location: SEDAR

Article - Physical Volcanology and Economic Potential of Komatiite-Associated Ni-Cu-(PGE) Deposits, Bannockburn Township Area

Publication Number: OFR6172.007 Date: 2005

Author: Houlé M.G., Préfontaine S., Berger B.R.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Mono - Report of Activities 2005, Resident Geologist Program, Kirkland Lake Regional Resident Geologist Report: Kirkland Lake District

Publication Number: OFR6184 Date: 2006

Author: Meyer G., Grabowski G.P.B., Guindon D.L., Chaloux E.C.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

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