Aer-Kidd

 

The Aer-Kidd project is located ~20 km southwest of Sudbury, Ontario along the Worthington Offset Dyke, an area with a rich mining history, dating back to the 1800s. Mineralization was first discovered on the Aer-Kidd property in the late 1880's and near-surface mining occurred periodically from 1916 to 1968, from three zones. Other similar near-surface mines were developed to the west and east of Aer-Kidd by Vale/Inco (Totten mine) and KGHM (Victoria mine).

Although deep discoveries ~1-1.5km below surface have been made by both Vale (10.1 Mt @ 1.5% Ni, 1.97% Cu, 4.8g/t PGM) and KGHM (14.5 Mt@ 2.5% Ni, 2.5% Cu, 7.6 g/t PGM) that are roughly 10x the size of their near-surface deposits, Aer-Kidd remains virtually untested, at depth.

The Aer-Kidd property was acquired from CaNickel Mines Ltd. in September, 2012 and Sudbury Platinum believes it has excellent potential to host a significant Ni-Cu-PGM deposit comparable to Vale's Totten deposit and KGHM's Victoria deposit. The historic Aer-Kidd orebodies remain open at depth and the drilling and subsequent borehole geophysics completed by Crowflight in early 2000 suggests that the mineralization may extend to depths in excess of 1,000m.

The company has committed to an initial $1.2 million exploration program that must be completed by April 2014, and includes compilation, borehole geophysics and drilling.

 

 

Geology

 

The Aer-Kidd property is located on the Worthington Offset Dyke of the prolific Sudbury Igneous Complex (SIC) which is estimated to contain in excess of 1.6 billion tons of Ni-Cu-PGM mineralization at an average grade of 1.2%Ni, 1% Cu and 0.8g/t Pt+Pd. Two new discoveries of high-grade Ni-Cu-PGM mineralization have recently been made on the Worthington Offset.

The Victoria Deposit discovered by KGHM International is located 4.3km NE of the Aer-Kidd property along the strike of the Worthington Offset and contains a reported 14.5Mt @ 2.5%Ni, 2.5%Cu and 7.6g/t PGM. The Totten Deposit discovered by Vale is located 2.6km SW of the Aer-Kidd property along the strike of the Worthington Offset and contains a reported 10.1Mt @ 1.5%Ni, 1.97%Cu and 4.8g/t PGM.

The Aer-Kidd property covers a 1.3km section of the Worthington Offset Dyke including the former producing Howland Pit, Robinson and Rosen Mines.

 

 

Mineralization

 

On the Aer-Kidd property the Worthington Offset has a strike length of 1.3km and ranges in width from 10m up to 75m. The offset dyke is dominated by 2 distinct phases, a marginal inclusion-, sulphide-free quartz diorite phase and a inclusion-, sulphide-bearing phase (IQD) which is typically restricted to the central portion of the dyke and is the host for most of the mineralization encountered on the property.

Both disseminated and massive sulphides are encountered on the property and are hosted in zones of IQD that is typically focused in the center of the offset dyke or at locations where the morphology of the dyke abruptly changes.

Mineralized zones typically occur as pipe-shaped bodies that can extend from surface to depths in excess of 1500+ meters and have surface expression of 25m in width by 100m in length.

 

 

History and Results

 

Production on the Aer-Kidd property started in the 1900's and has occurred intermittently over the last 100 years. Three separate zones, the Howland Pit, Robinson Mine and the Rosen Mine have seen limited production over that time.

All three of the historic deposits consist of disseminated to massive sulphides hosted with IQD and are spatially related to 'pinches' and subsequent 'swells' within the offset dyke.

Development and production in both the Robinson and Rosen Mines was restricted to a zone extending from surface to a vertical depth of 300m. Historic mine sections, plans and drill logs suggest that both deposits remain open at depth.

Historic mine reserves report 786,000t @ 0.6%Ni, 0.8% ore contained ore within the Robinson and Rosen Zones down to a vertical depth of 300m.

From 2000-2004, Crowflight Minerals completed 29,200m drilling in 48 holes targeted mineralization at depths of 250-1250m. Difficult drilling conditions resulted in ~40% of the total meters either being lost or missing the target.

The best intersection was from hole W-03-03AW1 which intersected 1.46% Ni, 0.56% Cu and 1.3 g/t PGM over 8.2m in IQD at a drill hole depth of 844.2m.

Remodelling of historic BHEM surveys indicate that several significant EM conductors remain untested down-plunge of the existing known mineralization.

Sudbury Platinum Phase 1 program will consist of re-surveying several key historic drillholes with modern BHEM methods, which will help prioritize a Phase 1 drill program planned for the summer of 2013.

Sudbury Platinum feels that the Aer-Kidd property has excellent potential to host a significant Ni-Cu-PGM deposit comparable to Vale's Totten deposit and KGMH Victoria deposit. The historic orebodies remain open at depth and the drilling and subsequent borehole geophysics completed by Crowflight in early 2000 suggests that the mineralization may extend to depths in excess of 1,000m.