Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI000000003489

Record: MDI000000003489

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Tantalum, Niobium, Beryllium

Secondary Commodities: Cesium, Lithium, Rubidium

Location

Township or Area: Pickerel Lake Area

Latitude: 48° 42' 2.77"    Longitude: -91° 25' 19.05"

UTM Zone: 15    Easting: 616110   Northing: 5395394    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Thunder Bay South

NTS Grid: 52B11NW

Point Location Description: Position of main showing recorded in OFR6401 p. 70

Location Method: Data Compilation

Access Description: Access to the claim group is via Highway 11, northwest from Thunder Bay to Nickleby Road. Travel by foot or ATV south-southwest on the Nickleby Road (overgrown logging road) for approximately 5 km to a flagged trail, then continue westward on the trail for approximately 225 m to reach the Maple Leaf Dike discovery area.

Exploration History

2022: J. Wolf discovered the showing. Grid Metals Corp. carried out prospecting, sampling, mapping and channel sampling. 2023: Usha Resources Ltd. optioned the property.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Quetico

Geological Age: Archean  

Geology Comments

Jul 18, 2023 (Therese Pettigrew) - The White Willow property is situated within the Quetico Subprovince, consisting primarily of a linear belt of metasedimentary rocks on the margins grading into axial migmatite and granitic plutons (Percival and Williams 1989). The Quetico Subprovince (2.7–2.69 Ga) is a fore-arc accretionary prism consisting predominantly of metamorphosed turbiditic wacke, derived from the Wabigoon, Wawa, and Abitibi subprovinces (Williams 1991). There is a widespread distribution of rare metals pegmatites within Quetico Subprovince. The center of the White Willow property lies approximately 7 km south of the Wabigoon-Quetico subprovince boundary. The Wabigoon–Quetico subprovince boundary in the Atikokan area is represented by the Quetico Fault, a major east-trending structural zone, characterized by intense deformation. The Quetico Fault is, in some places, up to 1 km or more in width (Purdon 1989). Dextral displacement along the Quetico Fault is estimated by various workers to be in the order of 120 km (Bau 1979; Williams 1991). “Amphibolite-facies metamorphism, migmatite formation and granite intrusion occurred during the period 2.67 to 2.65 Ga” (Williams 1991).

Lithology

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Jul 18, 2023 (Therese Pettigrew) - Mapping and prospecting by Grid Metals Corp., in 2022, reported that the pegmatite is approximately 50 m wide and has been traced along strike for 350 m. It is an east-northeast-trending (60-80°) pegmatite with variable dips requiring further work. The dip of the pegmatite is unclear because the contacts with country rock were rarely observed; however, an outcrop, approximately 20 m east of the main showing, indicates a shallow dip to the southeast. The Maple Leaf Dike is a muscovite-quartz-feldspar pegmatite, buff-white in colour, coarse- to megacrystic, exhibiting feldspar crystals (up to 50 to 100 cm), patches of quartz, books of radiating green muscovite (up to 10 cm), with local graphic textures of quartz-feldspar intergrowths, local fine-grained aplitic zones and xenoliths of metasedimentary rocks. Rare metal mineralization at the Maple Leaf Dike consists of local tantalite minerals within an aplitic zone, as well as local yellow-green beryl, orange garnets and tourmaline minerals situated in the core of the dike. Hexagonal beryl crystals were observed at the following 2 other locations: i) approximately 100 m northeast of the MLD, at 616265E 5395498N, displaying numerous beryl crystals, and ii) the Wolf Beryl occurrence is the largest beryl crystal found to-date (up to 11 cm), discovered by J. Wolf at 616272E 5395518N, approximately 200 m northeast of the main MLD showing. Highlights from Grid Metals Corp.’s 2022 sampling program at the Maple Leaf Dike returned the following: results: B860563 (>5000 ppm Nb, 12% Ta), B418686 (>5000 ppm Be, 1730 ppm Cs, 472 ppm Li, 9870 ppm Nb, 3.78% Ta), B418955 (2629 ppm Nb, 3.41% Ta) and B418711 (1.08% Be, 1120 ppm Cs, 1150 ppm Li). Sampling by RGP geologists returned generally lower values than Grid Metals Corp.; however, the presence of tantalite, beryl, tourmaline, orange garnet (spessartine) minerals was observed at the Maple Leaf Dike. RGP sample results from 22DCNL001 returned 157.67 ppm Be, 1894.25 ppm Nb and >320 ppm Ta. Additional data, using a new method (IMX-CUS) being developed at the GeoLabs, was obtained by ICP-MS analysis after a lithium metaborate fusion for samples *22DCNL001 and *22DCNL004, returning 170.07 ppm Be, 2047.41 ppm Nb, 3753.83 ppm Ta and 7.2 ppm Be, 557.45 ppm Nb, and 54.61 ppm Ta, respectively. Sample 22DCNL001 was also sent to GeoLabs in 2022 for XRD and SEM analysis, confirming the presence of columbite-tantalite, garnet (almandine and/or spessartine), apatite and gahnite (Campbell et al., 2023).

Assay Samples

Mineral Record Details

References

Mono - Report of Activities 2022, Resident Geologist Program, Thunder Bay South Regional Resident Geologist Report: Thunder Bay South District

Publication Number: OFR6401 Page: 63-79  Date: 2023

Author: Campbell D.A., Jonsson J.R.B., Dorland G., Pettigrew T.K., Ferguson S.A.

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For detailed information regarding this mineral record please contact the Thunder Bay South Resident Geologist District Office