Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI000000002507

Record: MDI000000002507

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Palladium, Platinum, Copper, Nickel

Secondary Commodities: Rhodium, Cobalt

Location

Township or Area: Gerow, Boon

Latitude: 46° 25' 12.97"    Longitude: -82° 13' 59.77"

UTM Zone: 17    Easting: 405231   Northing: 5141483    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Sudbury

NTS Grid: 41J08NE, 41J08NW

Point Location Description: DDH EB17-01 from Assessment report 20000015609

Location Method: Data Compilation

Exploration History

1952-62: a number of mining and exploration companies including Noranda Mines Inc., El Pen Ray Oil and Mines, Silcross Copper Mines Ltd., and Mining Corporation of Canada undertook exploration for Cu-Ni sulfide mineralization in the southeastern part of the East Bull Lake Intrusion. Geophysical work (ground magnetometer and EM surveys), trenching and diamond drilling were carried out. 1982-89: Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) completed mapping, outcrop stripping, ground and airborne geophysics, and drilled 4 holes (2,618 m) to assess the East Bull Lake Intrusion as a potential radioactive waste storage/disposal site. 1989-90: Gallo Exploration completed stripping, blasting, mapping and sampling of the sulfide occurrences plus VLF-EM and airborne magnetic surveys. 1991-92: Inco Exploration carried out mapping and diamond drilling (5 holes for 1,512 m). 1998: Freewest discovered the Valhalla showing and obtained surface grab samples. Mustang acquired the former Gallo Property and then newly staked claims from a group of Sudbury area prospectors. Mustang re-logged the AECL holes. 1999-2000: Freewest completed prospecting, blasting, ground geophysics, and drilled 27 holes for a total of 2,902 m. Mustang completed mapping, magnetic and IP surveys and drilled 11 holes for a total of 1,766 m on the Bullfrog Grid. The exploration results demonstrated the Freewest Valhalla Zone extended onto the Mustang property. 2001: Falconbridge Limited optioned the property from Mustang. 2001-02: Falconbridge completed prospecting, mapping, trenching, ground and airborne geophysics, and drilled 6 holes for a total of 860 m. 2007: Mustang optioned the property to Western Areas NL, an Australian company. 2008-12: Mustang and Western Areas completed a helicopter VTEM survey, Moving In-Loop, Fixed Loop EM (MLEM and FLEM) and ground TDEM surveys on the Parisien and Bullfrog Grids. 2012: at the Bullfrog Grid, three existing Mustang holes (ME00-14,19, 21) were extended to test TDEM anomalies in the footwall of the Bullfrog trend. 2017: Pavey Ark Minerals Inc. carried out channel sampling, drilled 3 DDH totaling 320 m, and resampled the Freewest drill core. 2020: GridMetals Corp. carried out a magnetotelluric geophysical survey. 2022: Canadian Palladium Resources Inc. released an updated NI 43-101 and mineral resource.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Southern

Geological Age: Paleoproterozoic  

Geology Comments

Sep 10, 2021 (Therese Pettigrew) - The East Bull PGM Property is underlain by gabbroic rocks of the Paleoproterozoic East Bull Lake Intrusive Suite. The ca. 2.48 Ga East Bull Intrusive Suite (Easton et al. 2010) consists of several intrusions of dominantly gabbronorite to gabbroic anorthosite that occur in both the Southern and Grenville provinces in the Sudbury area between Elliot Lake and North Bay. The three largest intrusive bodies of the Suite are the East Bull Lake and Shakespeare Dunlop (or Agnew Lake) Intrusions in the Southern Province and the River Valley Intrusion in the Grenville Province. Easton et al. (2011) describe the East Bull Lake Intrusion as consisting of 2 interconnected magma chambers referred to as the Western Lobe and the Eastern Lobe that are connected by a dyke-like conduit. The East Bull Lake Intrusion outcrops over an area of about 43 km2, is 20 km long, and up to 4 km wide. The Intrusion is a layered lopolith with shallow inward dips from the northeast and southwest contacts, and steeper inward dips from the northwest and southeast contacts. The Intrusion was emplaced into Archean meta-volcanic and plutonic rocks of the Superior Province. The East Bull PGM property is on the southern contact of the western lobe (Puritch et al., 2019).

Lithology

Lithology Comments

Sep 10, 2021 (Therese Pettigrew) - The East Bull PGM Property is located on the southern contact of the larger western magma chamber of the East Bull Lake Intrusion. As documented by Easton et al. (2010), the stratigraphy of the East Bull Lake Intrusion is divided into the Marginal, Lower, Main, and Upper Series. On the East Bull PGM Property the PGM and base metal mineralization is primarily hosted in the Inclusion Bearing Zone at the base of the Lower Series. This is the main host rock for PGM in the East Bull Intrusion (Puritch et al., 2019).

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Sep 10, 2021 (Therese Pettigrew) - Sulphide mineralization in the East Bull Intrusion is primarily developed in the Inclusion-Bearing Zone (“IBZ”), within a few tens of metres of the footwall contact of the East Bull Intrusion with host rocks of the Whiskey Lake greenstone belt. Mineralization also locally occurs disseminated throughout the Anorthosite zone and in the overlying Leucogabbronorite Zone at a distance of up to 400 m stratigraphically above the margin of the intrusion (Peck et al., 2000, Wood 2001). On the East Bull Property, significant precious metal and base metal mineralization has been defined by drilling and surface trenching in the IBZ over a strike length of 2.0 km. The Valhalla Zone, named after the original Freewest discovery, is the largest mineralized zone with a strike length of over 1,500 m and extends from the former Freewest claim onto the former Mustang claim where it was previously named the Bullfrog zone. The Valhalla Zone strikes at approximately azimuth 078 and dips approximately -45 degrees to the north. The zone is typically 20 to 25 m wide but locally up to 60 m wide and has been drilled down-dip to a maximum vertical depth of approximately 150 m. The Hanging Wall Zone occurs as 20 to 25 m wide mineralized zone, parallel to the Valhalla Zone, in the eastern part of the Deposit. The Hanging Wall Zone has been defined in the eastern part of the Property on the former Mustang property over a strike length of approximately 700 m. The Garden Zone is a small zone of mineralization defined by trenching and several drill holes in the western part of the Property. Mineralization locally contains up to 10% sulphide, but more typically mineralization consists of 0.1 to 1.0% sulphide and rarely exceeds 2%. The sulphides consist of finely disseminated grains, and coarser blebs up to 5cm in diameter with chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite and that appear to have initially formed as primary magmatic sulphides (Yuritch et al., 2019). Cabri (2000) completed a mineralogical study of core samples from the East Bull PGM Deposit on the former Freewest claim. Cabri completed reflecting light microscope studies and scanning electron microscope studies to identify the sulphide minerals. The major sulphide phases are pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, pentlandite and pyrite. Based on energy dispersive spectra, PGM minerals were identified as: froodite (PdBi2); kotulsite (PdTe); merenskyite (PdTe2); michenerite (PdBiTe); unidentified Pd arsenide; sperrylite (PtAs2); platarsite (PtAsS); and hollingsworthite (RhAsS). Gold grains were also identified. The PGM and gold occur as small inclusions ranging in size from 1 to 30 µm in size included in all of the major sulphide minerals. Pavey Ark’s exploration results in 2017 included hole EB17-01 that intersected 12.0 m at 2.87 g/t PGM+Au, 0.23% Cu and 0.13% Ni and hole EB17-03 that intersected 7.0 m of 3.21 g/t PGM+Au, 0.16% Cu and 0.07% Ni (Puritch et al., 2019).

Mineral Record Details

References

Publication - Technical Report and Initial Mineral Resource Estimate on the East Bull Platinum Group Metals Property, Gerow Township

Publication Number: 2019 NI 43-101 Date: 2019

Author: Puritch, E., Yassa, A., Barry, J.

Publisher Name: P&E Mining for 21C Metals

Location: SEDAR filed under Canadian Palladium Resources

Publication - Technical Report and Updated Mineral Resource Estimate on the East Bull Palladium Property

Publication Number: 2022 NI 43-101 Date: 2022

Author: Stone, W., Puritch, E., Wu, Y., Barry, J., Feasby, D.G., Yassa, A.

Publisher Name: P&E Mining for Canadian Palladium Resources

Location: SEDAR

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