Congo in Canada, new cobalt play
September 18, 2018 For Immediate Release
News Release TSX-V: CHEM
Canadian Energy Materials Corp. to Acquire Grindstone Copper-Nickel-Cobalt Project – a “Congo-style” District-Scale Exploration Target in Canada
September 14, 2018 – Vancouver, British Columbia – Canadian Energy Materials Corp. (the “Company”) (TSX-V: CHEM) is pleased to announce that it has agreed to acquire the 3,846 hectare Grindstone Copper-Nickel-Cobalt project (the “Project”), located in an under-explored region of northwestern New Brunswick, Canada. This will be acquired by the Company’s purchase of all of the outstanding shares of CIN Energy Materials Inc. (“CIN Energy”), which owns the Project. The terms of the purchase are described below.
The Project targets a 14km long magnetic anomaly with exceptional stream sediment and soil geochemistry. First identified by Noranda in the early 1990’s, the Project saw only a limited, shallow drill program (5 holes, 433 total meters) which did not explain either the magnetic or cobalt anomalies.
The main target area is a 2km long drainage with 8 stream sediment samples returning between 291 and 900 ppm cobalt, with associated anomalous nickel and copper values. Systematic soil sampling over the anomalous drainage confirmed the copper, nickel and cobalt stream sediment anomalies, with good direct correlation in nickel and cobalt, and distinct spatial correlation with copper.
The best cobalt-in-soil value was 620 ppm. Where outcrop was accessible, rock samples were taken and assayed for gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, cobalt, nickel and manganese. The highest cobalt value in an outcrop grab sample was 530 ppm (0.053%) with 0.11% nickel and 0.66% manganese.
The Project area is underlain by Matapedia and Grog Brook calcareous and tubiditic sediments of late Ordovician age, an environment known to host “Congo-style” mineralization. The Ordovician Period is known to have yielded numerous clastic sediment hosted mineral deposits.
Exploration Model
The Congo and Missouri Cobalt districts and mineral deposits have many similarities. They are clastic sediment-hosted, in-platform carbonate sequences commonly on the flanks of basins. They are formed in basinal metal enriched brines, unrelated to igneous activity. Generically clastic dominated deposits may come under various names, mainly reflecting geography (e.g. Mississippi Valley Type, Alpine, Appalachian, Redbed, Upper Silesia, Kupferschiefer, etc.), each with its own distinct characteristics.
In the Congo and Missouri districts, topographic highs of basement rocks provided channels and traps for mineralized fluids, where galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, bornite and cobalt accumulated in distinct zones, creating large and specific deposits of each mineral.