Footwall/Offset Geological Environment Studies

R&D Program Director

Purpose

The Footwall/Offset Geological Studies in the Sudbury Basin ("Footwall") project is focused on developing a greater understanding of the Footwall /Offset geology of the Sudbury Igneous Complex thereby enhancing future opportunities for exploration success.

Value Proposition

In recent years, mining company exploration within the Sudbury Basin has been successful in making discoveries of new high grade nickel-copper-PGM-rich mineralization. The value of these ores on a per tonne basis are high and thus additional further refined and sophisticated exploration methods to help identify others are warranted.

Although the majority of Sudbury's past production is from mines which occur in the co called "Contact environment" some also occur in the "Offset or Footwall environment", that is, in the rocks immediately below and in juxtaposition to the contact-hosted ores. NSR values in excess of $1000/t are not uncommon in footwall deposits, making them significantly more valuable than contact ores. Vale Inco's Totten Mine is an example of an Offset-hosted new mine and Xstrata Nickel's new Nickel Rim South Mine is a recent example of one located in both contact and footwall rocks. The Footwall project is focused on more thoroughly understanding the geology of these types of ore deposits to optimize future exploration efforts.

Outcomes

Three projects have been initiated. Two are well underway with the third just commencing.
They are:

1. Detailed petrologic and geochemical studies of Offset rocks- completed Q3 2010
2. Detailed petrologic and geochemical and partial melting studies of South Range rocks (in prep) - complete 2014
3. Detailed structural and metamorphic analysis of footwall rocks in the South Range - complete Q2 2011

In addition, approval from NSERC for funding of a further two related projects have been granted:

• Experimental studies of the role of Bi, Te, As in PGE fractionation and remobilization during sulfide liquid fractionation and during metamorphism and
• The role of fluids in the modification and formation of Cu-Ni-PGE systems

Team Members

Work is being conducted by students and a PDF under the supervision of researchers at the Mineral Industry Research Centre (MERC), part of the Dept. of Earth Sciences at Laurentian University.

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