Let the Drilling Begin

[CAT345C]

http://www.miningjournal.net/stories/ar ... leID=12485

Mining exploration continues
By JOHN PEPIN, Journal Staff Writer



MARQUETTE — A Canadian mining company, exploring mineral deposits in the area since 2000, has announced plans to begin test drilling this month near the proposed site of the Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company Eagle Project.

Prime Meridian Resources Corp. of Calgary, Alberta, plans to test drill at locations within two miles of the nickel and copper deposit on the Yellow Dog Plains sought by Kennecott.

“Drilling is planned to begin in mid-March when the first drill rig is scheduled to arrive,” the company said in a recent news release.

Field crews from a Quebec company will conduct ground surveys to determine drilling sites.

Prime Meridian officials said the crews will establish and survey grids across the company’s high-priority drill targets developed since January 2000. Those targets were located from a combination of electromagnetic, magnetic and gravity airborne surveys and ground reconnaissance exploration.

Drilling is expected to continue throughout the year, with the company drilling all of its high-priority targets and others currently being developed on Prime Meridian lands, the company said.

“The sequence of targets to be drill tested is dictated by logistics and seasonal access such as road bans and winter restrictions in some areas,” the release stated. “Drilling of up to five targets before spring break-up is planned with drill results to be reported after receipt of core analyses and interpretations are compiled.”

Similar to the Kennecott Eagle project — Prime Meridian will be searching for minerals within sulfide ores, which, if mined, could ultimately lead to acid mine drainage and the leaching of heavy metals, Dick Huey, co-founder of Save the Wild U.P., stated in a press release.

Save the Wild U.P. identifies itself as a “grassroots group of citizens concerned about the impact of metallic sulfide mining.”

Huey said grassroots groups concerned with the dangers of sulfide mining pointed to the Prime Meridian release as “proof positive that the U.P. is poised to become a new mining district and, subsequently, an environmental catastrophe waiting to happen.

“Save the Wild U.P. has been ringing an alarm about a dangerous new mining district for some time, but this is the first confirmation from industry.”

Prime Meridian’s drilling will start in the Baraga Basin and Kiernan Sill nickel-copper project areas in settings similar to the Eagle Deposit. The areas are only accessible during winter.

The company’s strategy for nickel-copper exploration has been to focus on the northerly portion of the Mid-continent Rift located in Michigan and Minnesota.

“The rift provides a deep-seated structure and conduit that permits the development of magmatic nickel-copper (plus or minus cobalt), platinum, palladium and gold mineralization to be deposited, which is similar to Kennecott-Rio Tinto’s Eagle Deposit,” the release said.

All of the Prime Meridian nickel-copper-platinum-palladium targets are in Michigan and southeast Minnesota and are in settings similar to the Eagle Deposit. Four of the six Baraga Basin targets are within 1.9 miles of the Eagle deposit and will be drilled later this year when access can be constructed.

Prime Meridian is also planning airborne surveys over three additional nickel-copper projects including Wolf Mountain-Wakefield Sill and Norway Lake South Branch Sill, both in Michigan, and another site in Minnesota.

[trainjunkie47]

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[CAT345C]

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