So where does this elusive - cobalt - hide in Northwest Territories -
particularly the Nico Deposit ?
Seems Nico....
doesn't really go out of thier way to show drill cores of - cobalt ore.
Yes... i did a tad more research on - cobalt -
this highly prized mineral comes in so many colors - if oxidized.
rosey, peachy, green, blue, royal blue, violet, deep purple, grey tone metal.
So... how did i come across more intel ? I scanned one of Fortune's Tech reports.
Discovered the name
- New Athona Mines - Here's what i found.
They named the 2 claims - CAB 1 - CAB 2
Cobalt is found in - Arsenopyrte ores.
New Athona Mines Ltd. (CAB 1-5, 7-18 claims) (85-N-10; about 63° 33 1N, 116° 45 1W) (Cobalt, Bismuth)
This property is in the Marian River area about 6 miles east of Hislop Lake and about 110 miles northwest of Yellowknife. The company optioned 12 claims from K. J. McDonald of Yellowknife and made an agreement to do 2, 000 feet of diamond drilling.
Five additional claims were subsequently staked. The
arsenide veins on the property occur in a unit of feldspar and feldspar-quartz porphyries (Unit 7 of Map 690A; Lord, 1942).
These rocks may be a series of extrusive acidic lavas and ignimbrites. Similar porphyries near Ellington Lake, about 110 miles to the north, form a shallow basin and are recognized as of extrusive and, in part, pyroclastic origin (Lord, 1952). Likewise, Fraser (1967) recognized a similar origin for rocks some distance southwest of the latter locality. Inter layered(?) rocks have been logged as
black, massive, altered sediment and grey to black quartz-mica schist, but it is possible that these rocks were originally
basic tuffs or contained a significant tufface ous component.
Diamond drilling was carried out on the property from July 21 to August 24, 1968, under the supervision of Mackenzie Management and Engineering, Yellowknife. The first 4 holes tested the No. 1 zone (approx. 63° 33'08"N, 116° 45 1W) along a length of about 500 feet and 2 holes tested the No. 2 zone (approx. 63° 32 1 58"N, 116° 44'4511 W and about 850 feet southsoutheast of the No. 1 zone). The property was visited on August 13 when drilling had just been completed on the No. 1 zone. Massive arsenides over widths of about one foot were observed in core from this zone. The No. 1 zone is on claim
CAB 1 and the No. 2 zone on claim CAB 2. The details of the drilling are as follows:
Hole No. Inclination Azimuth Depth(ft.) Intersection (lb. /ton) 68-01 68-02 68-03 68-04 68-05 68-06 45° 45° 55° 55° 45° 55° 19° 194° 30' 11 ° 19° 200° 30' 230° 15 1 202 211 175 151 198 62 79. 5' - 177 1 70 1 (?)-82.2' 18.8 1 -23 1 4.22 7.25 5 Co (lb. /ton) 1. 1 7 3.67 16. 6 The No. 1 zone has a known surface length of 920 feet (Northern Miner, Nov. 28, 1968, p. 98).
The
arsenide mineralization occurs in nearly massive bands and lenses, which show some evidence of discontinuity and en echelon arrangement along the zone, and disseminated for some distance into the wall-rocks. This zone has a strike of N35° to 50° W and appears to dip nearly vertically. Of two samples from a trench near the west end of the zone, one gave 7. 20 1 b. /ton Bi and 16. 4 lb./ ton Co and the other 2. 4 lb./ ton Bi and 6. 8 lb. /ton Co.
The three drillholes which intersected the No. 1 zone (hole 68-03 failed to intersect the zone) were distributed along a length of 240 feet. The 97. 5-foot core intersection listed above for hole 68-01 was from resampling of the core late in the season and the more detailed results are not available.
In hole 68-02 a 5-foot section which assayed 2 1 b. /ton Bi, 9. 64 lb. /ton Co and 4 lb. /ton Cu is reported (Northern Miner, Nov. 28, 1968, p. 98) from above the 12. 2-foot intersection listed above. It is reported that slightly lower results were obtained in hole 68-04.
The No. 2 zone is exposed as a nearly solid mass of arsenides about 10 feet wide which is exposed for only a short length. The vein strikes about N65° W and may dip very steeply to the north. It appears to pinch out toward the east as trenches in this direction have been unsuccessful in tracing the mineralization. A natural trench about 8 feet in width follows along the strike extension to the west, but it has been reported that trenching has successfully extended the vein in that direction (Northern Miner, Nov. 28, 1968, p. 98). A sample from a trench on the vein assayed 0. 21 oz. /ton Au, 13. 2 lb. /ton Bi and 65. 6 lb. /ton Co.
A sample from a trench farther west on the zone gave
O. 19 oz. /ton Au, 10. 8 lb. /ton Bi and 45.
6 lb. /ton Co. It is reported that the zone on surface shows consistent values in gold of about O. 1 7 oz. /ton. The 4. 2-foot section noted above for hole 68-06 also gave an assay of O. 08 oz./ton Au. A bulk sample of ore from the property was submitted to the Mines Branch, Ottawa, on August 18, 1965.
A chemical analysis of the sample gave the following results: Co("/o) Fe("/o) S(o/o) As("/o) Ag(oz. /ton) Au(oz. /ton) Bi("/o)
2.36 22.46 16. 04 4 0.84 o.18 o. 14 0.63
A mineralogical examination of the crushed ore indicated that the predominant mineral was arsenopyrite. Hematite and bismuthinite were present in minor amounts, and native silver, native gold, chalcopyrite, pyrite, pyrrhotite, ilmenite, magnetite, and emplectite were present in trace amounts. The
silver, gold, and pyrrhotite occur as minute inclusions in arsenopyrite. Bismuthinite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, and emplectite were found to be present mainly as free grains. Some bismuthinite occurs as inclusions in arsenopyrite and it was observed in close association with chalcopyrite in a few grains.
The cobalt content of a concentrate of arsenopyrite was found to contain 5. 7 5% Co and it was concluded that the cobalt is a constituent of the mineral, probably in solid solution, since no independent cobalt minerals could be found. On the basis of the mineralogical work and concentration tests on the ore Mathieu (1966) reported that initial attempts to produce a concentrate containing 10 to 15% Co were completely unsuccessful.
In fact, the ore could only be upgraded from 2. 3% Co to 2. 8% Co. He suggested that considerable research might be necessary to develop a chemical process for economically recovering the cobalt from such a low grade concentrate. Because gold is intergrown with arsenopyrite, very little concentra - tion was possible. However, it was found that cyanidation would extract about 75 per cent of the gold from either the raw ore or a bulk concentrate. It was concluded that less than 25 per cent of the bismuthinite occurs as free grains which range in size from 6 to 130 microns across.
The occurrence of much of the bismuthinite as inclusions in arsenopyrite holds the recovery of bismuth to about 50 per cent. With the best procedure found to recover the bismuthinite, bulk flotation followed by separation, it was not possible to obtain a concentrate grade higher than 19. 5% bismuth {Mathieu, 1966).
A sizable exploration program has been recommended for 1969 to include further surface prospecting, a geophysical survey, additional diamond drilling and complete sampling of all core obtained in 1968. A drill and equip - ment were stored on the property at the end of the 1968 season. However, extension of the arsenide-bearing veins will be largely an academic exercise until solutions have been found to the processing problems that have been outlined above.
LINK - https://emrlibrary.gov.yk.ca/gsc/papers/70-70.pdf SOLID SOLUTION - ( DEF )
Many alloys, ceramics, and polymer blends are solid solutions. Copper and zinc dissolve in each other and harden to give solid solutions called brass. Cobalt - blended into - the arsenopyrite.
Interesting.
What would happen if a good does of chlorides washed - came in contact with the
cobalt aresonopyrite - would it convert a of the cobalt hidden in the aresnopyrite to form a bleed - would one see greens, blues, purples, in cores ?
Would the cobalt unbond from the arsenopyrite in a chloride ?
Convert ot a temp Hydrated state and then... back to solid ?
Cause a purple color - leaching in cores ?
COBALT - Occurs naturally as:
- cobalt arsenide Co(As2), known as smaltite or speiss cobalt
- cobalt sulfarsenide (CoAsS), known as cobaltite or cobalt glance
- hydrated arsenate (Co(AsO4)2.8H2O), known as erythrite or cobalt bloom
LINK -
https://www.energymining.sa.gov.au/industry/minerals-and-mining/mineral-commodities/cobalt
NICO - Apr 2, 2014 — Fortune Minerals Limited (Fortune) is a public company, ... oxide, cobalt nitrate and cobalt chloride can also be produced from the same Sound like Fortune - is using ( nitric acid and chloric acid ) to place cobalt into solution.
Ahhh. ha.
NOTE -
( chloride reacts to sulphides )
( sulphides react to chlorides )
INTERESTING TO READ....
The - aresnopyrite - was in the feldspars and quarts ( too ).
And.... with in the darker sulphide ores. ( black stufF )
There's gold hunters...
And... then there's pyrite hunters.
Anyways....
Thought I'd share.
P.S.
88 - i was in this stock few years back.
Stock was moving rather slow... so i jumped out.
As mentioned in former posts - i'm back in.