In 2011, Wallbridge completed a 30,000-tonne bulk sample at its Broken Hammer project. The ore was processed at Xstrata’s Strathcona Mill with estimated net proceeds of about $2.5 million, or $85 per tonne. Wallbridge has contracted Wardrop, a Tetra Tech company, to update the mineral resource estimate and complete pre-feasibility and feasibility studies. Permitting and a production decision at Broken Hammer are expected this year.
Drilling is also planned to test targets near and down-plunge of the Broken Hammer resource. The area surrounding the Broken Hammer property has extensive unexplored potential for large high-grade copper-PGE footwall deposits.
On the Impala Parkin Offset Joint Venture, drilling in 2012 will follow up on recent high-grade drilling results at the Milnet 1500 Zone, including wedge cut WMM-015-W2, which intersected 8 metres of 4.32 g/t TPM, 0.60% copper and 4.11% nickel. The Milnet 1500 Zone was discovered by Wallbridge in 2009 and is located at a depth of about 1500 metres beneath the Milnet Mine. Drilling will target electromagnetic conductors extending from the Milnet 1500 zone as well as similar targets nearby.
“We will build on our recent success at Broken Hammer and Parkin,” said Wallbridge CEO Alar Soever.“We look forward to continuing our successful strategy of generating high-potential nickel, copper and platinum group element exploration projects and advancing these through joint ventures or spin-off companies.”
The Lonmin Sudbury Camp Joint Venture has a budget of $1.25 million earmarked for 2012. Work planned includes more than 3,000 metres of drilling, geophysics and fieldwork to test for footwall and offset-style PGE, copper and nickel deposits on the Skynner Lake, Foy, Windy Lake, Cascaden, Trill, Trill West and Creighton South properties.
The Xstrata Frost Lake, Wisner and Graham joint ventures are slated for 1,300 metres of diamond drilling, geophysical surveys and fieldwork to test for footwall-style copper, nickel and PGE deposits.The largest program will be on the Frost Lake joint venture on the East Range of the Sudbury Basin where a large ground electromagnetic survey and follow-up drilling are planned over the Amy Lake Sudbury breccia structure which hosts Wallbridge’s Amy Lake PGE zone and Vale’s adjacent Capre footwall deposits. The East Range is a rich and underexplored part of the Sudbury Basin hosting a number of deposits and mines that illustrate its discovery potential.
As Wallbridge sees it, Sudbury is still the place to be for mining in 2012.
“The planned exploration work in 2012, a more aggressive program than 2011, will continue to focus on Sudbury, Canada’s premier mining region,” said Wallbridge president Marz Kord. “In terms of metal endowment, infrastructure, community support and regulatory stability, Sudbury is the most attractive place in the world to explore for and develop large-scale copper, nickel and PGE mining projects.”
Wallbridge will also be busy with its North Range properties.
Recent work has resulted in the discovery of 46.5 kilometres of offset dykes, including four new offset dykes totaling 17.5 kilometres and a 29-kilometre extension to the Hess Offset dyke. Offset dykes are the host structure for about 25 percent of the ore mined in Sudbury and are particularly attractive exploration targets as they typically contain elevated PGEs. With the recent discoveries, Wallbridge controls more than half of these structures in Sudbury, most of which have never been explored. Wallbridge’s North Range properties offer large-scale grassroots discovery upside in the most established mining camp in Canada. The company is currently seeking partners to fund further fieldwork, geophysics and drilling on the North Range.
On the Booth River Project in Nunavut, Wallbridge is planning a ground electromagnetic survey over nickel, copper and PGE targets in the first quarter of 2012 and is seeking partners to fund drilling in 2012.
Knowledge and innovation have allowed Wallbridge Mining to become one of the premier companies in the industry and 2012 will be another year for the company to prove it.
“We’re good at generating projects and attracting larger companies to invest their money to advance these projects,” said Bailey. “Our technical team has a thorough understanding of Sudbury geology and we’re involved in supporting research with government surveys and universities. That work keeps us at the forefront of new ideas on how deposits are discovered. We are recognized in the industry for our hard work and innovation. It has allowed us to expand the areas of prospective geology outside of what was traditionally understood. Our innovations have paid off and will continue to pay off.”
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