Fond du Lac

Summary

The 197 km2 Fond du Lac Property (4 mineral claims) is in northern Saskatchewan 14 km north-west of the community of Stony Rapids and 70 km south of the border with the Northwest Territories. The Fond du Lac claims cover a portion of a metamorphosed layered Precambrian mafic-ultramafic complex along a major tectonic zone that extends well into the Northwest Territories. The area is one of the largest magmatic Ni-bearing intrusives in the regional Snowbird Tectonic Zone which is a major crustal structure between the Archaen Hearne and Rae domains.
The most extensive mineralized zones discovered to date on the Fond du Lac claims have up to 41.1m of massive to disseminated pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite within noritic sills, a strike length exceeding 2.5 km and a drill-confirmed, down-dip extension from surface of at least 250m. Pure Nickel has done geological mapping, soil geochemistry and airborne geophysics as well as ground geophysical surveys over portions of the claims. Drilling of VTEM airborne and UTEM ground geophysical targets confirmed the effectiveness of these surveys in detecting Ni-Cu mineralization. In 2008, a test ZTEM high resolution and deep penetrating airborne survey extended the length of known Ni-Cu zones and detected a new drill target which extends to more than 500m depth.
The Fond du Lac Property is owned by Pure Nickel Inc. subject to a royalty of one-half of one percent Net Smelter Return (NSR).

Location

The property is located in northern Saskatchewan, east of Lake Athabasca, 70 km south of the Northwest Territories border, immediately north of the Fond du Lac River and centred 14 km north-west of the community of Stony Rapids. Stony Rapids has year-round road access and daily scheduled flights to its airport.
The Property consists of four contiguous claims with a combined area of 19,713 ha. It is accessible by float or ski-equipped fixed-wing aircraft or helicopter.

Geology

The Fond du Lac Property covers the central portion of a 40 by 10 km layered and differentiated Precambrian ultramafic complex that has been metamorphosed to granulite and amphibolite facies and folded into a broad southeast-plunging synform. This intrusive is within a triangular area of abundant mylonitic rocks known as the East Athabasca mylonite triangle or the Tantato domain. Numerous mafic-ultramafic intrusives known to host magmatic sulphide Ni deposits occur along the Snowbird Tectonic Zone. In addition to the Fond du Lac deposits of Pure Nickel, Strongbow’s Nickel King deposit lies on this emerging Ni belt trending to the north-east with a NI 43-101 compliant Indicated resource of 11.1 million tonnes at 0.40% Ni, 0.10% Cu and 0.018% Co plus an inferred resource of 33.1 Mt at 0.36% Ni, 0.09% Cu and 0.017% Co.

Exploration History

Since the discovery of the sulphide gossan on the shore of Axis Lake in 1929, the Fond du Lac property has been explored utilizing ground and airborne geophysical techniques followed by approximately 9,000m of diamond drilling. Highlights of drilling results include 2.5 % Ni and 0.4 % Cu over a 15.2 metre massive sulphide zone and, elsewhere, disseminated sulphide mineralization vertically continuous from surface for approximately 250m.
Pure Nickel began exploration in 2005 with a VTEM survey covering a 36 by 12 km area and a soil geochemistry program. This was followed in 2006 by a UTEM ground geophysical survey over a 6 by 6 km area and a 2,342m (7 holes) diamond drilling program. All seven holes intersected Ni-Cu sulphide mineralization with up to 1.86 % Ni and 0.45 % Cu. In 2007, a 19-hole 3,127m drill program tested the Rae Lake south sulphide zone and the Axis Lake east sulphide zone. Drilling showed that the Rea Lake mineralized horizon has a strike length of at least 3 kilometres, and included an intersection of 0.15 % Ni and 0.14 % Cu over 41m. Drilling of the main west-east trending Ni-Cu sulphide horizon spanning Axis Lake determined that the norite-hosted mineralization has a strike length of at least 2.5 km, contained disseminated sulphide intervals with a combined thickness of up to 60m and included a 0.15m interval of 1.90 % Ni and 0.38 % Cu.
In 2008, a test ZTEM high-resolution and deep penetrating airborne survey was conducted over an 8 by 10 km area. The results indicated a longer strike continuity of the known Axis and Rae Lake Ni zones than previously interpreted from the previous VTEM results. The survey showed an unexplained, strong ZTEM anomaly extending from surface to more than 500m in depth lying to the north-west of the known Ni zones.

Targets

Further step-out and infill drilling is recommended along the mineralized Axis Lake and Rea Lake horizons with the objective of extending the Ni-Cu sulphide mineralization which have a known strike length of 2.5 and 3.0 km, respectively. Drilling of the Rea Lake mineralized horizon already has shown that mineralization can be traced from surface down-dip for at least 250m and is up to 41.4m thick.
A high priority drill target is the unexplained conductor detected by the ZTEM survey to the north-west of the known Ni zones and interpreted as extending from surface to beyond 500 m depth. This target extends west outside the area surveyed by the ZTEM and thus further survey lines to the west would define the lateral extent and determine where the first drill holes should be positioned to intersect the zone of best interpreted mineralization.