Wolfden Resources Corporation (TSX: WLF), Advances Manitoba-Based Rice Island Base Metals Project with Additional Drilling, Focuses on Adding Tonnage to the Resource
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By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC
on 4/4/2016
Wolfden is a Canadian exploration company focused on exploring for base metals in the provinces of Manitoba and New Brunswick. The Rice Island nickel-copper project is the company’s flagship project with good grades and excellent potential to enlarge the known deposit and to find additional deposits on the property located proximal to infrastructure within a well-established mining community. Donald Hoy, President and CEO of Wolfden Resources, a proven resource discoverer and explorer and his experienced team’s successful record has enabled them to survive in a long mining downturn and to raise money for projects.
Donald Hoy, President and CEO of Wolfden Resources (TSX: WLF), spoke with Dr. Alper at PDAC to update our readers on the progress that he and his team are making at the Rice Island base-metals project located in Manitoba. He said, “Wolfden is a Canadian junior mining exploration company. Our focus is to explore for base metals, including nickel and copper as well as copper and zinc. We explore in relatively safe, mining-friendly, jurisdictions in Canada. Currently, Wolfden have projects in the Province of Manitoba that are nickel and copper properties and in the Province of New Brunswick, where we are exploring lead-zinc-silver properties as well as a gold property.
The company’s flagship project, Rice Island, has their focus right now as they seek to increase the historical mineral resource located on it. Hoy said, “Our priority right now are the nickel-copper projects in the Province of Manitoba. First and foremost, is the Rice Island nickel and copper property that was explored in the 1940s and 1950s by Inco Ltd. Inco held the property in their portfolio (later to become Vale) until the spring of 2015 when they let the mineral claims lapse. We acquired the property by claim staking, effectively gaining a 100% interest in the project with no outstanding royalties. After compiling all of the historical exploration data, It was pretty clear to me that there is very good potential to make the historic deposit bigger and that the potential to find additional similar deposits elsewhere on the property is excellent.”
“The Rice Island project is a typical magmatic nickel- copper deposit. The deposit itself is hosted within an ultramafic intrusion that is underlain by sediments. So it is pretty simple, geologically. The best grades of nickel-copper mineralization occur at the base of the intrusion at the Main Zone, forming a keel-like structure, immediately underlain by sedimentary rocks. Our drilling was very successful in confirming the grade, configuration and extent of the Main Zone and in so doing, we made a new discovery in the fall of last year. We discovered the feeder zone or the conduit to the Main Zone that we call the New Lower Zone (NLZ). The NLZ features some extremely good nickel, copper and cobalt grades, but more importantly offers us really good potential to increase the mineral inventory in conjunction with the Main Zone.”
The goal during this year is to continue work on the project and to increase the resource base. Mr. Hoy said, “We want to continue to keep working at Rice Island in 2016; the focus will be to make it bigger, ideally to double the size of the historical mineral resource and to continue to encounter high-grade mineralization. We will also be focusing on a number of high-potential exploration targets in the locale of the deposit and elsewhere on the property, generated by airborne geophysical surveys as well as ground geophysical surveys. We think the potential to find more of these deposits is very good, given that magmatic nickel-copper deposits tend to form in clusters.”
Mr. Hoy brings impressive experience to the table that will help him advance the project. He said, “I have been in the industry for close to 30 years. I did spend five or six years with a major company, but most of my career has been with juniors. I spent close to 20 years with Freewest Resources as Vice President of Exploration and while there, was fortunate to participate in the discovery of a world-class chromite discovery, known as the Black Thor deposit. Freewest was very much grass-roots exploration-oriented, we liked to shoot (drill a lot of holes) and that approach is extremely important if one wants to make new discoveries”.
The company will be seeking financing soon. Mr. Hoy said, “In terms of working capital, we will soon be looking at raising both flow-through and hard dollars. We are at about eight million market cap with a million dollars in the bank. The company is lean, but very experienced. Mr. Ewan Downie, Wolfden’s chairman (and the President and CEO of Premier Gold Mines Ltd.), has been very helpful on the financial side in raising money. We are always on the lookout for new opportunities as well. With the connections we have made over the last 30 years, there is always a pipeline of new properties coming through the door. That is what you need to grow. With our experience and our financing ability, we are able to move quickly and decisively on any given attractive opportunity.”
Why should investors look at Wolfden? Mr. Hoy said, “I’m a big believer in the people. I think they are your most important asset. The management team of our Company is the most important consideration, because we have survived the ups and downs of the industry and have made some important mineral discoveries along the way as well. Good people are going to find good assets. Good assets can be mismanaged if you don’t have a good exploration and financial team in place. Number two, which goes hand in hand with the first reason, is that you need to be able to raise money. We have been able to survive and to raise money over the last few years of challenging times for junior exploration companies. We can raise money for good, quality projects. Number three is assets. You have to have the goods. It can take a long time to get that project. You always have to be on the lookout for the good ones. We have two good projects right now and we aim to add value to both as well as to the Company”.
http://www.wolfdenresources.com/
1100 Russell Street, Unit 5
Thunder Bay, ON P7B 5N2
P: (807) 624-1130
F: (807) 624-1133
info@wolfdenresources.com
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