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BullMarketRun.com Special Report – Part 2

Dr. Peter Lightfoot – Renowned Nickel Sulphide Expert – Eyes A Possible Game-Changing Discovery In B.C. 

There are few individuals in the world with a better understanding of Nickel sulphide deposits, and the Nickel industry in general, than Dr. Peter Lightfoot.  The highly respected geologist is now running his own business, Lightfoot Geoscience, after carving out a very successful 20-year career with Inco and Vale that began shortly after the infamous Diamond Fields’ discovery at Voisey’s Bay.

Dr. Lightfoot recently developed a major interest in the prolific Eskay Camp in northwest British Columbia, famous of course for its spectacular high-grade Gold and Silver and one of the richest ore discoveries in history – Eskay Creek.  To the southeast of Murray Pezim’s great find, Pretium Resources (PVG, TSX) just poured its first Gold at Brucejack – on track to become one of the world’s premier Gold mines as it ramps up to commercial production at a rate of 500,000 ounces per year (16 g/t Au).

What has sparked more than just geological curiosity in Dr. Lightfoot is the growing recognition in recent months that the Eskay Camp could also host something resource investors generally would never expect in British Columbia – one or more Nickel-Copper-rich massive sulphide deposits.  The specific area of interest is approximately 11 miles southwest of Eskay Creek where Garibaldi Resources (GGI, TSX-V) assembled a 63 sq. km land package last year (E&L Project) around Nickel Mountain, shortly after the bear market bottom.  A modest but nonetheless significant near-surface drilling discovery was made at Nickel Mountain 50 years ago, but events unfolded in such a way that the discovery was never properly followed up on.  Besides, those large Nickel sulphide deposits – they all occur in other jurisdictions, don’t they?  The assumption is that B.C. is all about Gold, Silver and Copper.

“The E&L is in the top quartile of early stage Nickel sulphide projects in the world,” Dr. Lightfoot now declares.  “The model opens up opportunities in non-traditional Nickel sulphide environments such as the Canadian Cordillera (includes the Eskay Camp).”

After an exhaustive collection and reinterpretation of historic data, some field exploration last summer and a just-completed VTEM survey that revealed a series of promising conductors, Dr. Lightfoot leads a list of geologists who are convinced there’s much more to the E&L story.  As a result he joined the Garibaldi Advisory Board in March, and the company’s summer exploration program including drilling is now about to test some exciting theories.  The first drill holes will take direct aim at a bull’s-eye massive sulphide target including part of the historic resource and a large area defined by VTEM.

Prior to getting into some fascinating insights from Dr. Lightfoot, below is a list of known compelling facts regarding the E&L compiled by BMR’s research team:

Suffice to say, Dr. Lightfoot is bullish on the E&L – in geologist lingo, he’s optimistic but also appreciative of the fact that much still needs to be learned.  This will be a “critical” summer, he said – something everyone can agree on.

Dr. Lightfoot’s E&L Analogue

Dr. Lightfoot’s hypothesis – we stress that this is a hypothesis at the moment – is that the Nickel Mountain setting shares similarities to many of the small intrusion orogenic Nickel deposits from Western China such as Karatungk, Huangshandong and Hunagshan – they are all in what’s referred to as “transform faults”.  Jinchaun, also part of this belt and one of the world’s largest Nickel sulphide deposits, is perhaps an older equivalent, he believes.

In layman’s terms, an orogenic belt is a mountain range formed by compression of 2 plates at a continental margin.  Strike-slip faults in the Western China Nickel Belt created open-system magma ‘highways’, resulting in highly efficient accumulations of Nickel sulphides.  The same scenario may account for any major Nickel-Copper rich sulphide deposit that’s delineated in the heart of the Eskay Camp at the E&L Project.

“There has been a recognition in recent years that many of the important Nickel deposits are associated with very small intrusions that reside in cross-linking structures within strike-slip fault zones,” Dr. Lightfoot explained.   “This model explains the development of sulfide ore deposits in small intrusions that are emplaced along ‘magma highways’ within these fault zones. The majority of Nickel sulfide ore deposits belong to this group.  This model opens up opportunities in non-traditional Nickel sulfide environments such as the Canadian Cordillera.”

“The key control in many different geological environments is the development of transform (strike-slip) faults that provide paths for magma to migrate from mantle to surface and form small intrusions on the way,” Dr. Lightfoot continued.  “This can happen in orogenic belts as well as rifted cratonic margins.  Back when E&L was being explored by Sumitomo, this concept was not understood; even now it represents a hypothesis.  But the enormous amount of information that has appeared on the Chinese Nickel deposits is very compelling evidence.  Back in the 1960’s Sudbury was the really big Camp.  Thompson and Talnakh had just been found, Jinchaun was a small deposit hidden in communist China when it found in 1959, and the importance of komatites and Kambalda was not recognized until the late 60’s.  The exploration models for Nickel were in their infancy when Sumitomo was exploring E&L and the plate tectonic context of mineral deposits would not appear for a couple of decades after this.”

Intrusion Size – Where Many Investors Get It Wrong!

Click on the arrow to listen to more of Jon’s interview as he questions Dr. Lightfoot about what constitutes a “small intrusion” and why these features can be so prospective for major Nickel sulphide deposits:

Two other key points regarding the E&L from Dr. Lightfoot:

• Initial helicopter-borne electromagnetic survey data point to significant conductivity associated with the known mineral zones and additional targets along strike that require follow-up;
• The quality of the mineralization at the E&L, as measured by the Nickel tenor, is high and it has potential by-product credits.

We’ll have more with Dr. Lightfoot in the days ahead as we continue to investigate the possibility of the Eskay Camp hosting yet another remarkable deposit – in this case, one that would rewrite the geological playbook for the region.

Click on link below for Part 1 of our feature.

Where Some “Shock And Awe” Could Come From To Ignite The Venture

Note:  John, Jon and Daniel hold share positions in GGI.

Disclaimer:

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