Nickel & Cobalt

[Ed Monton]

This one looks interesting.

http://www.manicouaganminerals.com/


Manicouagan finds anomalies in Quebec crater


2005-07-22 10:55 ET - News Release

Mr. Constantine Salamis reports

MANICOUAGAN MINERALS INC. IDENTIFIES SIGNIFICANT SHALLOW AND DEEP ANOMALIES RELATED TO A LARGE METEORITE IMPACT STRUCTURE

Manicouagan Minerals Inc. has completed its MegaTEM airborne surveys and has received magnetotelluric results. The company is set to begin a diamond-drilling program on the 65-kilometre-wide impact site at Manicouagan, Que. Highlights thus far include:


MegaTEM airborne survey identifies several conductive anomalies near the edge of the inner crater;
given the position of the intense and arcuate anomalies relative to the edge of the crater, the analogy to Sudbury remains relevant at Manicouagan; and
drilling to commence by July 28, 2005, focusing on testing the recently identified anomalies.

The MegaTEM airborne geophysical surveys were completed on June 30, 2005. A total of 8,184 line kilometres on 200-metre line spacing were completed over the large (1,750 square kilometres) property held by Manicouagan on Ile Rene Levasseur, the 65-kilometre-wide inner Manicouagan crater. The island was formed by a Triassic-age (215 million years old) meteorite impact, one of the five largest on earth. Although technical analysis by FUGRO is still preliminary, the company plans to drill at least eight of the land-based MegaTEM conductors before year-end.

An additional six selected conductors are on or near the water and will be tested on winter ice early in 2006. Among the latter are several long arcuate anomalies on the periphery of the island which forms the inner meteorite crater. The objective of the MegaTEM surveys was to locate targets within the larger (95 per cent) part of the inner crater, which to date has not been explored. The surveys were successful in outlining significant and relatively shallow drill targets particularly near the edge of the crater.

The Sudbury base-metal deposits by comparison are located primarily near the edge of the inner crater where they are shallowest, providing a strong analogy to the Manicouagan setting and the recently identified geophysical anomalies. The central part (5 per cent) of the Manicouagan crater was the focus of deeply penetrating magnetotelluric (MT) surveys designed to better define MT targets located by earlier surveys as well as locate a strong anomaly toward the central uplift north of the camp on Lac des Iles, which is located near the centre of the crater.

The March/April surveys carried out by Phoenix Geophysics located 12 conductors within four kilometres of the camp. They appear to be associated with long dike-like features with pinch-and-swell MT anomalies straddling the margins. At least three holes will be drilled to the depths of 1,500 metres with a fourth to eventually test the strong anomaly (No. 12) near the edge of the central uplift at Mont de Babel. The first holes to be drilled near the camp will test highly conductive subhorizontal MT anomalies.

Contracts for the deep drilling (5,600 metres) have been awarded to Heath and Sherwood of Kirkland Lake, Ont., and for the MegaTEM drill follow-up (4,800 metres) to Forages Pelletier of Cap Chat, Que. The heavier drill has now been mobilized to the edge of the reservoir awaiting transport. Once the drill is on the site to initiate drilling on the first deep hole, the second drill will be mobilized to the camp.

The company anticipates a July 28 start-up for the drilling program. Constantine Salamis, chief executive officer, reports: "We are encouraged by results obtained to date by the two geophysical programs. It is our view that, in light of these positive and strategically positioned anomalies, the case for the Sudbury analogy on the Manicouagan impact site is now stronger."

The company's management believes that the Manicouagan impact crater in Quebec may be an analogue to Sudbury, which at 360 million pounds of annual nickel production, is the second-largest nickel camp in the world after Norilsk in Russia. Statistically speaking, 36 per cent of known impacts have significant mineralization in postimpact sediments, 25 per cent of known impacts have associated mineral resources and 12 per cent are currently being exploited or have been exploited in the past. The Manicouagan crater site has not been tested using modern exploration techniques.