Alba Mineral Resources plc (AIM: ALBA) has told DirectorsTalk that it has commissioned an extensive airborne electromagnetic (EM) survey at the Amitsoq graphite project in southern Greenland, targeting graphite zones and extensions of the former graphite mine at Amitsoq, nickel and platinum group elements to the north of the former mine as well as potential gold targets on the mainland to the south of Amitsoq island.
The contractor has now commenced mobilisation and the survey is due to commence within the next few weeks.
Highlights
· Mobilisation has commenced for an extensive EM survey over Amitsoq Project
· The principal objective is to establish and prove up the continuity of the known graphite deposit and former graphite mine, both along strike and at depth
· The EM survey will also target:
o known Nickel-Platinum Group Element anomalies on Amitsoq island
o Gold targets further south along strike from a known gold deposit and former gold mine
· By the use of the deep penetration EM system selected, Alba seeks to fast-track the exploration and development of the Amitsoq Project
Survey details
The Company has commissioned a specialist airborne geophysical survey company to carry out an airborne EM and magnetic survey at Alba’s Amitsoq Graphite project in southern Greenland.
The principal target of the survey covers the southern portion of Amitsoq island, which hosts the former graphite mine, as well as a target to the north of the mine which hosts the Nickel-Platinum Group Element anomalies known as Amitsoq Dyke and Craig’s Dyke.
The objective is to identify electromagnetic and magnetic horizons within the survey area. Several known graphite horizons (up to 16.58 metres in thickness) are present. The interpretation of these horizons will help Alba to assess the continuity along strike of the graphite horizon and/or horizons. It will also assist us to identify additional structural geological elements which will assist in the interpretation of the regional geology. The precise location of the survey areas is shown on a map which is available on the Alba website (under “Projects”).
In relation to the Amitsoq Dyke and Craig’s Dyke targets, Amitsoq Dyke was first discovered by the Geological Survey of Greenland (“GGU”) in the early 1960s when boulder tracing discovered a hornblende peridotite intrusion on Amitsoq Island, about 10 km northeast of the old graphite mine. The GGU published a summary of the economic geology of Greenland in 1973, which mentions the nickel and platinum occurrence on Amitsoq Island. It is described as an ultramafic, structurally related hornblende-peridotite dyke-like body, 1.5 km long and up to 100 m wide with sulphides thought to be early magmatic segregations. The richest mineralisation contains up to 5% sulphides. A further programme of exploration in the late 1980s discovered another ultramafic intrusion called “Craig’s Dyke‟, approximately 1.5 km to the south on the western side of the island. Nine grab samples were taken from the Craig’s Dyke occurrence and these averaged 442 ppb Pt, 418 ppb Pd, 85 ppb Au, 0.28% Ni and 0.48% Cu. The highest grade grab samples returned values up to 3.8 g/t Pt+Pd+Au. In 1988, magnetics and VLF-EM surveys were undertaken at Craig’s Dyke and it was interpreted that that the mineralisation may be hosted in a steeply plunging “rod-like‟ pipe. The EM survey will assess not only the known dykes but will also look at parallel structures, looking for deep sulphide accumulations.
In addition to these survey areas on Amitsoq Island, which are targeting graphite and Ni-PGE mineralisation, Alba is also targeting two possible gold anomalies on the mainland to the south of Amitsoq Island (but within the licence area) which have been identified in the remote sensing studies Alba carried out in 2015 and which have previously been reported. These are located respectively approximately three miles east and six miles north-east of Nanortalik town. The two targets are approximately 20 kms along strike from a known former gold mine at Nalunaq (circa 340,000 ounces of gold produced to date).
The flight line spacing and direction will be 200 m for most of the survey area, but 100 m for areas of known graphite and Ni-PGE mineralisation. The benefit of the system selected is that it should be able to deliver 400 m penetration, subject to any difficult areas of terrain which may be encountered in parts of the survey area.
The survey involves three to four days of flying time and should be completed by the end of September, weather permitting. Full analysis of the data set from the survey will then be undertaken and reported on. This will then allow us the time in Q1 2017 to plan our follow-up field campaign for Q2/Q3 2017.
Work undertaken to date at Amitsoq
Alba’s work to date at Amitsoq has confirmed the following:
· Test work carried out on hand/grab samples collected during a field expedition returned excellent results, showing graphitic carbon contents varying from 20.5% to 35.4%, with an overall mean graphitic carbon content of 28.7%, significantly higher than the previously reported historic average grade of 20% and higher than most reported advanced graphite projects globally.
· Measurements of the discrete graphite flakes suggests that the mean flake-size varies from 300-500 µm, ‘Jumbo’ to 180-300 µm ‘Large’, however the single most common flake size is in fact ‘Super-Jumbo’ (>500 µm). The larger flake sizes attract a premium in the market.
· The results of a remote sensing study were highly encouraging, highlighting several anomalies for a variety of commodities. Numerous and continuous graphitic horizons were suggested along strike and proximal to the Amitsoq graphite mine.
· Additional FeO anomalies are interpreted to be favourable targets for platinum group metals, orogenic lode gold and intrusion related copper-zinc mineralization.
· Anomalies have been identified with geology similar to economic gold mineralisation at the nearby Nalunaq gold mine (circa 340,000 ounces of gold produced to date). Nalunaq is only some 14 miles to the north-east of one of our own gold target areas and other known gold areas occur some three miles to the north-east in an adjacent licence.
· A recent bulk sampling exercise (August 2016) took 179 kilograms of graphite ore sampled from a vein that had previously been exploited when the Amitsoq mine was operational, which vein was found to have a true thickness of 16.58 metres.
Mike Nott, Alba’s CEO, commented: “The use of the deep penetration system we have selected for this EM survey represents another piece of the jigsaw which we are using at Alba to seek to fast-track the Amitsoq project. In particular, we hope to be able to use the physical property of graphite as an excellent conductor to help establish and prove up the continuity of the known graphite deposit, both along strike and at depth.”
“We look forward also to receiving the results of the EM and magnetic survey over the potential gold, nickel and PGE target areas that we have identified from previous work and in particular from our own remote sensing study.”
