The Seagull property consists of 17 claims (159 claim units) with an area of 24.35 km and is located approximately 60 km northeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Rainy Mountain has granted an option to Minfocus International Inc. of Toronto, Ontario entitling Minfocus to earn an interest in the Company’s jointly owned Seagull property.
Seagull is a joint venture project between Rainy Mountain Royalty Corp. (30%), Canadian International Pharma Corp. (40%), White Metal Resources Corp. (30%) and Minfocus Exploration Corp. Minfocus has been granted an option to earn a 55% interest (and additional options to earn a 70% and 85% interest based on additional property expenditures and payments to the JV partners).Under the Option Agreement, Minfocus has the initial option to earn a 55% interest in the property from the Optionors collectively upon paying the sum of $55,000 and issuing 50,000 shares of Minfocus (which shares and cash payment will be allocated to the Optionors on a pro rata basis). Additionally, Minfocus is required to pay the Optionors $25,000 (in cash and/or shares of the Optionee) on the 12 month anniversary, the 24 month anniversary and the 36 month anniversary of the Option Agreement. Also, Minfocus is required to incur exploration expenditures on the Seagull property in the amount of $250,000 in each year of the 4 year initial option term.
As well, Minfocus can earn a 70% interest in the Seagull property by incurring an additional $2,000,000 in expenditures against the property during the initial 4 year option term. Further, Minfocus has the right to increase its interest to 85% by completing a feasibility study on the property within a 5 year period following the initial option term.
Seagull contains three horizons containing platinum and palladium with elevated osmium and other PGE elements. The lower basal zone is similar in appearance to the Noril’sk Number 1 ore body (open pit mine). Nickel-copper sulphides have a zoned texture that is typical of Noril’sk in Siberia.
Click here for: Drill Hole Assay Results
Seagull Drillhole Plan Map PDF: 810 KB |
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Seagull Longitudinal Section PDF: 434 KB |
The Seagull Intrusion first attracted attention in the 1980's when black (magnetite) PGE bearing sands were found. Attempts to measure the depth of the intrusion were made in the 1990's using airborne magnetics and gravity. In 1997 17 claims were staked over the black sand area by Bob Fairservice who in turn had optioned the claims to Avalon Ventures Ltd. Avalon carried out ground magnetometer, mapping, trenching of the black sand and auger hole drilling in the black sand as well as 8 diamond drill holes to depths on average of 140 m to test the PGE bearing black magnetite layer within the upper pyroxenite phase (on surface and sometimes 25 m depth).
The property was then optioned to East West Resource Corporation and Canadian Golden Dragon Resources Ltd. who earned a 50% interest in 2000 by spending $300,000 and then continued to earn a 60% interest by spending a further $700,000. This was finalized in 2001 with the completion of 10 holes, down hole EM, and a detailed aeromagnetic survey. Drilling in 2000 consisted of hole WM00-01 initially to 606 m, then deepened to 820 m where the lower contact was found to be at 571 m which yielded 1.65 gm PGE over 4 m. It was later discovered that this intersection was the east edge of a larger layer extending west not identified until 2004.
Hole WM00-02 was drilled 250 m east of 00-01 which intersected basement at 359 m showing that the eastside was uplifted. The nature of this eastern area is still unexplored.
Drilling then was directed at a moderate magnetic susceptibility anomaly beneath hole 98-5 and the hole was deepened from 141 m to 630 m. A 16 m sulphide zone was intersected within a 565 – 588 m disseminated zone that contained Cu, Ni and PGE values. The sulphides were zoned with copper minerals at the top of the 2 – 5 mm sulphide blebs and pentlendite-pyrrhotite at the bottom. This same texture occurs at the Norilsk No. 1 open pit Ni-Cu-PGE deposit in Siberia.
Holes 98-2 and WM00-03 were then drilled on line 2000 E to create the first north-south section. Sulphides were cut in both 03 and 98-2, however a trough or gully was reorganized near 98-5. A short hole was drilled on the western margin WM00-04, which located the upper gabbro pyroxenite phase that forms the magnetic anomaly ring like feature. A thin layer of Sibley sediments was located within this hole beneath the gabbro-pyroxenite.
Hole WM00-05 was then drilled to test a prominent magnetic susceptibility anomaly at the base of the intrusion that trends in a north-south direction for a 1.2 km length. This hole hit a 2 m zone grading up to 3.58 g Pt + Pd at 734 m and a second zone below grading up to 1.99 g/tonne. The lower contact was 763.5 m with Quetico Sediments.
The low sulphur content (0.95%) for the high amount of PGE mineral indicate the presence of "enriched sulphides". In this case if the sulphide amount increased to massive sulphides, one might expect grades up to 140 g PGE. Norilsk grades in massive chalcopyrite are typically 60 g/tonne Pd. This high susceptibility model was correct and accurately defined the shape of the Seagull Intrusion and highlighted the lower gabbro-pyroxenite-lherzolite host for the sulphide minerals. The more subtle fine grained sulphide in the 470 – 530 m area were not recognized which later became evident in July 2004.
Hole WM00-08 was later drilled on line 2300E, 4575 N to locate a possible feeder dike indicated by the magnetic susceptibility model. This hole also hit a double layer of PGE bearing sulphides as well as a fragment of an older ultramafic phase within the gabbro-pyroxenite. This might suggest the hole is close to an entry point for the magma. Narrow ultramafic dikes were also seen in the Quetico metasediments, which may be off shoots from a feeder dike. Also the lower contact with the Quetico was 30 m higher in WM01-08 than in hole WM-05 suggesting a displacement of the basement rocks which also may suggest a feeder dike along a fault. Feeder dikes bring in magma and may create sulphide concentrations.
Hole WM00-06 was drilled to the south west of hole 98-5 to trace a mise-a-la-masse anomaly seen when energizing sulphides in 00-03. A fine grained sulphide zone with anomalous PGE up to 0.75 g/tonne was intersected which may be the western edge of the new PGE horizon that presumably lays at a 100 dip to the east and extends north to other parts of the intrusion.
Hole WM01-9 and WM01-10 were drilled to the south and east of WM00-05 to locate the deepest part of the intrusion. Hole 9 hit the Quetico basement at 781 m which to date is the deepest intersection. The sulphide content in hole 1, 9 and 10 within the lower gabbro-pyroxenite was low where as the sulphide content in 00-05, 01-08 and 98-5, 00-03, 98-2, 00-06 is high. Therefore the sulphides were likely introduced through a feeder dike in the 2300E – 2350E area and spread west during the early stages of the development of the Seagull Intrusion. However a later magma pulse event formed 2 more sulphide horizons within the dunite (olivine) rich phase that carry significant Cu-Ni and PGE results including Os, Ir, Rh, Ru that exceed other world class deposits such as Sudbury, Norilsk and the Merensky Reef.
Exploration of the Seagull 10 km diameter ultramafic-gabbro intrusion continued in early 2002 with the completion of a 2 km X 2 km UTEM (University of Toronto EM) pulsed EM loop survey run on east-west trending lines over the area previously drilled where a north south trending magnetic feature occurred. An EM conductor was located near hole WM00-05 with a north westerly trend. A detailed aeromagnetic survey of the whole Seagull intrusion was carried out at 100 m line spacing which has been processed using a magnetic inversion program to determine the location of the base of the intrusion and its shape. The favourable lherzolite (gabbro pyroxenite) horizon that hosted the PGE bearing sulphide zones can be recognized from this survey and is very extensive at the base of the Seagull complex. Further drilling is being formulated.
An airborne magnetic survey was also flown over the complete Disraeli property at 100 m spacing and modeled using the UBC inversion program. The Fox Mountain dike (olivine gabbro was well defined and coincided with a curved magnetic low suggesting the presence of a large cone ring (dike or sill) structure. Ground EM surveys were also run over the Caro Lake area on the southern part of the Disraeli claims where shallow conductors were indicated.
A helicopter borne time domain EM test profile over Seagull and Disraeli was completed in February 2003 which further confirmed the known conductors from earlier Megatem surveys and delineating a deep conductor at Seagull at a 500 m depth.
As a result of two new layered PGE bearing sulphide zones being discovered in 2004 with assays of 4.0 g Pt + Pd over 2.0 m, a $7.5 million joint venture was announced in September 2004 whereby Platinum Group Metals "PTM" could earn a 50% interest in the Seagull-Disraeli property by spending $7.5 million in 5 years and commit to $250,000 by December 31, 2004 and spend $500,000 within the first year.
Drilling commenced in November and continued to February, which tested a magnetic and gravity high area 2 km east of the original discovery area and other fringe extensions to the Leckie stock. Drilling of the new layers in the 400 – 500m depth area was not done as part of the 2004-2005 program, nor has testing for Norils'k type sulphides at the base of the intrusion (near the magnetic susceptibility high zone, know as "Red Square") and pulsed EM conductor south of hole WM00-05.
Drill hole WM05-17 intersected 0.44 metres grading 7.90 g/t Pt+Pd+Au (3.69 g/t Pt, 3.99 g/t Pd and 0.21 g/t Au) within broader intercepts of 1.72 metres grading 3.25 g/t 3E and 4.28 metres grading 1.77 g/t 3E, between 329.12 and 333.40 metres depth, marking the Lower Dunite Horizon. The 0.44 metre interval noted above is associated with Cu and Ni values of 0.47% and 0.33% respectively.
The 1:1 ratio of Pt:Pd remained consistent in all sulphide intervals.
In April 2006, the Seagull and Disraeli claim group option to Platinum Group Metals expired and the property continued to be 100% owned by East West Resource Corporation and Canadian Golden Dragon Resources Ltd. A drill program was then initiated in May 2006 to trace both the upper PGE layers that were found in 2004 as well as the basal sulphide textures.
The May 2006 drill program involved 3 holes WM06-23 to WM06-25 that were positioned to test sites located 150 m north and 125 m south of WM00-05 along a magnetic susceptibility trend at the base of the Seagull ultramafic body and a third site located 150 m north of hole WM01-09 and 150 m south of WM04-20. This last hole, WM06-25, was located to fill in a gap between WM01-09 and WM04-20 and provides evidence for the continuation of the PGE layers in a northerly direction for over 600m. This hole successfully proved the continuation of these PGE layers. In addition a wider zone of anomalous PGE values was found to occur in the lower basal unit (lhertzolite) in both hole WM06-24 and WM06-25, perhaps reflecting the steeper slope to the basal contact on the north side of the intrusion.
PGE = Platinum Group Elements: Pt, Pd, Os, and Ir
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Regional Mag Showing Seagull Property Location PDF: 711 KB |