At the end of March, Eagle Plains Resources (EPL.V) confirmed it successfully staked a 1,266 hectare land package in Saskatchewan. The Elizabeth Lake project is located just over 20 kilometers north of La Ronge and as the project was acquired through staking, there are no underlying royalties, payments or encumbrances on the property.
The company was drawn to the area as the deposit area has previously been explored before and previous owners completed in excess of 10,000 meters of drilling in 36 diamond drill holes. Some of the historical drill core was well preserved and is currently stored at La Ronge and some of the more significant drill intervals are shown below.
Mineralization in the area was first discovered in the 1960s when molybdenite was discovered followed by the discovery of copper mineralization in 1967. The area was subsequently optioned to Noranda Exploration which completed a ground electromagnetic survey as well as a geological mapping and trenching program which was followed up by a 21 hole drill program. That 1968 drill program successfully outlined a mineralized zone that was just over 850 meters long with a depth ranging from just over 100 meters to just over 400 meters. Subsequent to Noranda dropping the option at the end of the 60s, several other companies owned and/or explored the asset and the last known exploration program was conducted in 2012 by Kenna Capital which completed an airborne EM and horizontal magnetic geophysical survey in the area, and that survey included a part of the current Elizabeth Lake property.
As the property has been drilled, some of the previous owners put together a historical resource estimate with a 1970 resource containing 4.34 million short tonnes at 0.63% copper while Claude Resources completed another resource update in 1996 defining 6.7 million tonnes at 0.68% copper. The most recent reference to a resource calculation is the official publication by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Energy and Resources which pegged the total resource at just under 5 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.73% copper. Keep in mind all aforementioned resource calculations are historical in nature as they don’t meet the NI43-101 guidelines.
Disclosure: The author has a small long position in Eagle Plains Resources. Eagle Plains is a sponsor of the website. Please read the disclaimer.
