Devan And Garden Projects Acquired In Ontario

VANCOUVER - Prospector Metals Corp. has acquired the Devon and Garden Ni-Cu-PGE projects, located near Thunder Bay, Ontario, through staking as part of a broader Ni-Cu-PGE exploration strategy with a focus on high-grade, conduit-hosted deposits hosted within under-explored large igneous provinces.

The Devon Project located in a region on an Archean craton margin, covered by a sulfide-bearing sedimentary sequence, a known ideal geotectonic setting for major magmatic sulfide deposits. The dykes are emplaced along normal faults which provide ideal conduits for deep seated fertile mafic magmas to rise quickly through the crust without losing their chalcophile elements or PGE's, thus facilitating the transport and emplacement of these elements near surface in the earth's crust. The region is intruded by numerous olivine-tholeiite, mostly dyke-form intrusions, which can contain disseminated to locally massive magmatic Ni-Cu sulfides with PGEs, as documented from numerous historical prospects and occurrences. Additionally, there are numerous Ni-Cu-PGE occurrences outside of the project area, as well as to the southwest in Minnesota, on the same dykes that strike into Prospector-held mineral claims. Major Pigeon River dykes are typically 50-70 m in width but are locally up to 150 m wide. The dykes locally bifurcate, as well as change orientation from dykes to sill-form intrusions.

Assimilation of pyritic shales from the lower portion of the host Rove Formation sedimentary sequence is evidenced by abundant partially digested sulfidic sedimentary xenoliths, and confirms contamination of the magmas with crustal sulfides, resulting in the formation of magmatic sulfides, with Ni likely being sourced from the high-Mg olivine-rich magmas. The Pigeon River dykes are the older portion of a major ~1097 to 1092 Ma Mg-rich mafic intrusive pulse that occurred during development of the Mid-Continent Rift System. The youngest member of this magmatic pulse, the Crystal Lake Gabbro, contains a significant Ni-Cu-PGE resource, so it is possible that the older more voluminous and olivine-rich portions of the intrusive pulse, the Pigeon River dykes, are even more favorable.

The Garden Project has three relatively undeformed MUM intrusions with well-preserved igneous textures, interpreted to be post-greenstone belt late Archean in age based on geological relationships, occur in the two claim blocks representing robust targets for mineralization. The western claim block is dominated by an olivine-clinopyroxenite intrusion with possible affinities to the Lac des Iles suite of rocks. The 700 m E-W x 400 m N-S intrusion exhibits a 2-lobed magnetic response, with each lobe ~ 300 nT above local magnetic background and there is a trend of 2-5 Siemens DIGHEM conductors along its northern margin, including one 5-10 Siemens conductor, which have not been adequately explored. The intrusion contains medium to coarse grained hornblende gabbro phases along its eastern contact and exhibits igneous layering near the contact striking northeast with an apparent northwest dip.

The intrusion hosts disseminated fine grained blebs of pyrite and lesser pyrrhotite and disseminated magnetite. Inco drilled a hole on a coincident magnetic high & EM conductor close to the olivine-pyroxenite in 1966. This hole was 36.6 m long and intersected 1.2 m of amphibolite with magnetite followed by a series of graphitic metavolcanic rocks with 2 to 10% sulphide. No assays were reported. Historical geochemical anomalies near the olivine-pyroxenite include up to 0.84-1.58 ppb Ni in lake water samples, and 88.1-121.0 ppm Cu, 30.9-39.0 ppm Ni in lake sediments.

The eastern claim block is dominated by olivine-gabbronorite, likely formed in a primitive back-arc setting. The major element abundances of these rocks are comparable to gabbroic rocks of the Lac des Iles suite. The larger olivine-gabbronorite intrusion (2.5 km E-W x 1 km N-S) exhibits a 400 nT magnetic response associated with its western end. A 2 km long trend of 1-5 Siemens conductors, including one 5-10 Siemens conductor, extends along northwestern margin of the magnetic anomaly. Additionally, there are 4 DIGHEM conductors (1-5 Siemens) in northeastern portion. The smaller olivine-gabbronorite intrusion (1.5 km E-W x 0.8 km N-S) exhibits a 200 nT magnetic response on its eastern end. A sample taken in 2001 yielded 158.2 ppb Pt & 192.8 ppb Pd from a meso- or leuco- gabbro. The intrusions contain highly variable amounts of sulphides either as disseminated grains or within shears. East of the Mooseland River, the intrusion contains disseminated, fine to medium grained pyrrhotite and pyrite constituting less than 1% of the rock. West of the river, fine to medium grained sheared gabbro zones up to 1 m wide, oriented approximately north-south or east west, contain 3% to 5% fine grained pyrite with minor pyrrhotite. Samples of the shear, massive gabbro, and layered gabbro were analysed for PGE, with best values of 36 ppb Pt, 24 ppb Pd.