Critical mineral quest opens up vast Nunavut expanse

While 2023 saw a explorers flock to the James Bay region of Quebec in Canada, a host of ASX-listed companies set their sights further north to the province of Nunavut to hunt for gold, copper and critical minerals.

James Bay attracted major headlines throughout last year, with big guns including Patriot Battery Metals and Winsome Resources recording massive hits of spodumene-bearing pegmatites.

However, with the price of lithium dropping significantly in the past six months and Quebec becoming a little too popular for some, several hopefuls decided to roll the dice in the cold, but far less crowded province of Nunavut.

And Nunavut is vast.

If the region was a country, it would be the world’s 15^th biggest based on land size. It takes up about 20 per cent of Canada and covers just shy of two million square kilometres … plus, it has a strong history of mining, with well-known companies including Glencore and Agnico Eagle Mines establishing operations there in recent times.

Agnico is believed to have poured the first ever gold brick in the province at its Meadowbank mine back in 2010, while Glencore holds its Hackett River zinc-copper-silver-gold project.

While 2010 may seem late for gold production in Canada, it should be noted that Nunavut only formally became a province in Canada after it separated from the North West Territories in 1999 following the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, which provided the territory to the Inuit for independent government. The boundaries had been drawn in 1993.

In May last year, Viridis Mining & Minerals earned a 51 per cent interest in the South Kitikmeot gold project in Nunavut following the completion of its stage-one expenditure commitment of $1.5 million in exploration at the site. The company has an option to increase its share by spending an additional $2 million before the end of 2027.

Management executed a binding term sheet in August 2021, with TSX-listed Silver Range to earn up to a 100 per cent interest in the claims within the Black River-Contwoyto gold belt in Western Nunavut that make up the South Kitikmeot gold project. Grab samples at the operation have returned values of up to a glittering 156.28 grams per tonne gold.

South Kitikmeot consists of seven properties named Hiqiniq, Ujaraq, Gold Bugs, Esker, Bling, Uist and Qannituq, covering 11,448 hectares within the Black River area. The project has occurrences of iron-formation-hosted gold mineralisation in a prospective belt of permissive metasedimentary rocks that host the Lupin gold mine and the Goose Lake and George Lake deposits.

Late last year, White Cliff Minerals secured a swathe of ground in the Canadian province after an agreement with a private party for 61 mineral claims covering 80,500ha at Coppermine River.

Management says exploration has validated dozens of prospective occurrences of copper and silver mineralisation. It includes one rock chip sample from the Halo prospect returning outstanding assays of 30.24 per cent copper and 34g/t silver, while a second showed 30.25 per cent copper and 43g/t silver.

Rock chip samples from the Cu-Tar prospect delivered even higher results, with one assay returning 35.54 per cent copper and 17g/t silver. The company’s Don target has also returned multiple samples greater than 40 per cent copper, with another showing 30.7 per cent copper and more than 22g/t silver.

Management says the Coppermine area hosts a raft of high-grade copper lodes that sit along the same structural trend, primarily consisting of native copper, chalcocite, bornite, and chalcopyrite. Using existing high-resolution magnetics, in addition to extensive rock-chip, trench and drill results, White Cliff says outcropping structure and mineralisation can be traced over more than a whopping 100km of strike length.

The Coppermine area is rich in exploration history. Prospector Samuel Hearne first reached Coppermine River way back in 1771 and reported finding a four-pound copper nugget at surface. The area was first staked in 1929 and by late 1967, more than 40,000 claims were lodged by more than 70 different companies.

However, exploration slowed in the 1970s due to the instability of the price of copper.

The geology of the Coppermine area is characterised by an easterly-trending, copper-bearing belt of meso-proterozoic continental flood basalts and associated marine sedimentary rocks of Neo-Proterozoic age. The belt extends 80km south from the town of Kugluktuk on the Coronation Gulf, and 174km west to 64km east of the Coppermine River.

In November last year, American West Metals confirmed outstanding grades of 38.2 per cent copper and 30.87 per cent zinc from geochemical sampling at the Tempest prospect that forms part of its greater Storm project in Canada. The impressive results at the underexplored site in Nunavut came from surface gossan rocks that been mapped for more than 4km and are about 40km south of the Storm copper targets drilled earlier this year.

A small reconnaissance sampling and field mapping program was earlier this year aimed at expanding the company’s understanding of the area. Management says the mapping revealed a series of gossans that are significantly more extensive than originally defined.

Earlier last year, the company unveiled bonanza copper grades at Storm, with a 0.3m intercept at 42.8 per cent copper from 67m, in addition to identifying a new zone of mineralisation. The notable intersection, which was from its “4100N” zone, was contained within 46m going 2.2 per cent from 64m, including 15.6m grading 4.2 per cent from 65m.

In September, American West hit high-grade, sediment-hosted copper in three diamond drillholes sunk at Storm, with grades up to a whopping 49.6 per cent copper in one intercept. The company received assay results from the three exploration holes, with highlights showing a 76m hit at 2 per cent copper from 32.4m, including a 0.5m segment with the massive 49.6 per cent copper reading from 57.2m.

Storm sits within a 4145sq-km land package that also includes the Seal zinc project on Somerset Island. Together, Storm and Seal constitute the Nunavut projects.

The area has undergone extensive historical drilling and two separate copper sulphide systems have been discovered, with multiple near-surface high-grade copper zones identified at several target zones in drilling across 15sq km.

Management says several areas within Tempest remain unexplored and more detailed and extensive geochemical sampling is required to fully define the highest-priority target areas. Resource modelling and estimation work on the Storm copper mineralisation is continuing, with exploration planning for the 2024 season already underway.

According to the latest annual Nunavut: Mineral Exploration, Mining, and Geoscience Overview report, uranium saw renewed exploration in the Kivalliq region in 2022, with both Forum Energy Metals and ValOre Metals returning to previously-dormant projects. And it might prove fruitful for those companies chasing the heavy metal given the excitement it triggered on global markets this week.

At Forum’s Nunavut project, the company acquired mineral tenure over the Tattigaq and Qavvik deposits previously held by Cameco and undertook a preliminary program including review of existing drill data, a ground gravity survey, an archaeological study and community consultations with the hamlet of Baker Lake in preparation for a 2023 drill program. ValOre completed a summer drill program of RC and diamond drilling at its Angilak project, both of which resulted in identification of additional uranium oxide mineralised zones at the Dipole and J4 West targets.

While not yet as prolific as its Northwest Territories neighbour, Nunavut also includes several diamond exploration projects. In June 2020, North Arrow signed an option agreement with ASX-listed Burgundy Diamond Mines that would allow the latter to earn a 40 per cent interest in the Naujaat project by funding a preliminary bulk sample of kimberlite, and depending on results, a follow-up 10,000-tonne bulk sample.

The 1823-dry-tonne preliminary bulk sample was collected in 2021 and final results were released by North Arrow in July 2022.  Once processed, a total of 268 diamonds were recovered from the Pit B and D subsamples, more than 20 per cent of which were graded as “fancy coloured” by carat weight, with intense or vivid orange colouration.

According to The Northwest Territories and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, exploration expenditure is expected to show a decline in the province for 2023 compared to the previous year. The chamber predicts a drop from CA$255.4 million (AU$284.8 million) down to CA$161.3 million (AU$179 million).

However, to put that into context, the province enjoyed a steady increase in exploration expenditure during the previous four years before touching its record level in 2022.

And with such a large tract of land with a huge area relatively untouched by modern exploration, the odds are that there is likely to be some significant deposits in Nunavut just waiting to be discovered.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au