Thunder Bay North Project

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Location and Claims

The Thunder Bay North (TBN) projects are located approximately 50km north-northeast of Thunder Bay in northwest Ontario. The property comprises several blocks of mining claims covering an area of approximately 1,000km² mostly owned 100% by Magma. Magma also has a number of options to acquire 100% of certain claims.

Geology, Exploration History and Targets

The Thunder Bay North (TBN) project is in the northern part of the 1.1 billion years old Proterozoic Midcontinent Rift region, an important emerging Ni-Cu-PGM province. The geology of this region is analogous to that of the giant Norilsk - Talnakh Ni-Cu-PGM camp in Russia. Mineralization has been known in the Midcontinent Rift for many years; however, up until recently it appeared to be mostly of relatively low grade. The Eagle (3.6Mt at 3.5% Ni, 3.0% Cu & 1.6g/t Pt+Pd+Au) and Tamarack discoveries in the USA, as well as Magmas TBN discovery, all made this decade, have demonstrated that higher grade mineralization is also present and that the province has significant potential to be a major North American Ni-Cu-PGM camp.

Ultramafic boulders containing abundant disseminated sulphides were located within the southern part of the TBN claim block in July 2001. The glacially transported boulders are large (metre-scale) and angular indicating a proximal source. The boulders are mainly composed of unfoliated partly serpentinised peridotite containing abundant magnetite and generally 2-5% disseminated sulphides.  Assays range from 1.6g/t Pt+Pd+Au, 0.2% Ni & 0.2% Cu to 9.5g/t Pt+Pd+Au, 0.3% Ni & 1.0% Cu and average 3.8g/t Pt+Pd+Au, 0.2% Ni & 0.4% Cu. The Pt:Pd ratio of the mineralization is characteristically 1:1.  

Another extensive occurrence of boulders was found on the east shore of Current Lake in 2006. These boulders appear to be in-situ, with some minor movement, possibly due to frost heave. Assay values for 22 samples of these boulders ranged up to 9.4g/t Pt+Pd+Au, 1.2% Cu & 0.4% Ni with an average of 2.3g/t Pt+Pd+Au, 0.2% Cu & 0.2% Ni.

An aeromagnetic survey of the TBN claim block was undertaken in July 2006 and identified a prominent linear anomaly beneath Current Lake. This was interpreted to reflect the source intrusion for the peridotite boulders. The survey also located an intense reversely magnetised "bulls-eye" magnetic anomaly southeast of Current Lake on the adjacent Beaver Lake claim.

Drilling of the magnetic anomaly at Current Lake in December 2006 confirmed that it reflects a peridotite intrusion and is the source of the mineralised glacial boulders. The discovery drill-hole, TBND001, completed in December 2006 returned an intersection of  10.5m @ 2.8g/t Pt+Pd+Au, 0.5% Cu & 0.3% Ni. 

Subsequent geophysical surveys and drilling have confirmed that the peridotite intersected in TBND001 is part of the Current Lake Intrusive Complex - a 5km-long mafic-ultramafic magma conduit. In addition two further intrusive complexes of similar size have been identified to the west - the Steepledge Lake and Lone Island Lake Intrusive Complexes. These are also thought to be prospective for Pt-Pd-Cu-Ni deposits.

Over 50,000m of diamond drilling was completed in the northwestern part of the Current Lake Intrusive Complex up to June 2009. This drilling formed the basis for an initial Mineral Resource estimate completed by SRK Consultants (Canada) Inc. They estimated NI43-101 and JORC compliant resources, which were described in an announcement dated 7 September 2009, of:

Indicated Mineral Resource: 4.6 million tonnes at 1.35g/t Pt, 1.27g/t Pd, 0.32% Cu & 0.22% Ni

Inferred Mineral Resource: 3.6 million tonnes at 1.06g/t Pt, 1.00g/t Pd, 0.26% Cu & 0.19% Ni

Approximately 90% of the resources (by metal content) are within an optimized pit shell; the remainder are underground resources.

A further 47,000m of infill resource definition drilling was completed in the June quarter, 2010, to convert Inferred Resources to Indicated Resources. A resource estimate update based on this drilling combined with the earlier 50,000m of drilling is due to be completed in the September quarter, 2010. In addition, a major exploration program is in progress to identify additional zones of mineralization with resource potential to grow the resource base for the project. 

A Scoping Study (Preliminary Economic Assessment) is in progress on the mineral resources and is due to be completed in the December Quarter 2010. This study is focused on metallurgy and process engineering, mining options and environmental and permitting aspects of the project.

This section was last updated on 16 July 2010. For more recent information, please refer to the "Investor Information" section.