IMX Resources (ASX: IXR, TSX: IXR, IXR.WT) has exercised its right to a 50% interest in the St Stephen nickel-copper project in Canada from ABE Resources.
The St Stephen Project comprises two claim blocks totalling 42.9 square kilometres and covering 70% of the St Stephen Intrusion, which hosts 16 historic magmatic nickel sulphide prospects including a number of individual deposits.
Three of the deposits – Rogers Farm, Hall-Carroll and C Zone – host a historic non-NI 43-101 compliant Resource from the 1970s totalling around 700,000 tonnes at 1% nickel.
To acquire its interest in the St Stephen Project, IMX paid C$30,000 (A$28,326) and issued 148,000 shares to ABE Resources.
Neil Meadows, managing director, commented: “We are pleased to have acquired a 50% interest in the St Stephen Project, which has shown some encouraging mineralisation from the small amount of exploration work to date and is ideally located in terms of jurisdiction, mineral prospectivity and access to infrastructure.
“We now plan on determining the most suitable means by which value can be extracted from the project.”
As part of IMX’s acquisition of Continental Nickel in September 2012, the company acquired Continental’s option over the St Stephen Project.
Continental optioned the St Stephen Property from Abitex in 2008 and spent $1 million in exploration between 2008 and 2012.
This included a 325 line kilometre helicopter borne, time domain electromagnetic (EM) survey, 12 kilometres of ground EM survey, diamond drilling totalling 3,025 metres in 22 holes, and downhole EM surveys.
This work resulted in the discovery of five new nickel sulphide occurrences associated with the mafic-ultramafic St Stephen Intrusion.
Highlights included:
- G Zone: 28.1 metres at 1.17% nickel and 0.44% copper, including 3.5 metres at 2.5% nickel and 0.55% copper, and 3.65 metres at 3.02% nickel and 0.56% copper;
- Hanson Brook: 5.45 metres at 2.35% nickel and 1.06% copper;
- Triple J: 21.4 metres at 0.63% nickel and 0.22% copper;
- Billy’s Brook: 3.3 metres at 0.51% nickel and 0.41% copper; and
- Todd Mountain: 1.95 metres at 0.8% nickel and 0.24% copper.
The best nickel-copper grades to date are concentrated near the north-western edge of the intrusion near the contact with metasedimentary country rocks in a 1 kilometre long corridor.
Further drilling is required to fully test the extents of these zones and the area of the metasedimentary-intrusive contact.
Additionally, a number of untested EM anomalies exist throughout the St Stephen Intrusion.
The St Stephen Project is strategically located in the mining friendly jurisdiction of New Brunswick, Canada, and is close to important infrastructure.
It lies just 30 kilometres from the port of Bayside where there is an established commercial port facility, and 119 kilometres from the city of St John, where there is a commercial airport.
Analysis
The acquisition of a 50% interest in the St Stephen Project presents IMX with the opportunity to explore a project that is already shown to host 16 historic nickel sulphide prospects, including some individual prospects.
The little modern exploration that has been done on the project has already resulted in the discovery of five new nickel sulphide occurrences associated with the mafic-ultramafic St Stephen Intrusion.
Given the prospectivity and location of the best nickel copper grades encountered to date, IMX can determine the most suitable means by which value can be extracted from the project.
IMX remains very well-funded with around A$9 million in cash at the end of March 2013.
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