Pickle Lake, Ontario: Gold
HPM/Forgues,Mid-North Quebec: Nickel
Mouchalagane, Quebec: Nickel/Copper/PGE
Brabant Lake, Saskatchewan: Zinc
Manicouagan Nickel Project
Lac Maugue Copper/Silver Project
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Recent Work and Planned Exploration
In 2008, Manicouagan successfully identified several new nickel-copper-cobalt showings that are coincident with Airborne EM anomalies and HLEM conductors as well as extending, by diamond drilling, the known mineralization at Barre de Fer. Diamond drill results included 43.18 meters of 1.74% nickel, 0.90% copper and 904 ppm cobalt from hole HPM-08-03.
To date only a small portion of the HPM/Forgues Property has been evaluated. The property includes the Forgues claim group, located some 16 kilometres to the west, which hosts several nickel-copper-cobalt prospects first discovered by Xstrata Nickel and the PYC claim group where prospecting by Xstrata Nickel delineated a mineralized zone over a strike length of one kilometre, which returned grab samples containing up to 0.76% nickel, 0.93% copper and 1415 ppm cobalt. See news release from December 18, 2008 for further results.
Drilling is currently expected to resume during the summer of 2009.
Manicouagan believes that the HPM and Forgues properties have significant potential for magmatic nickel-copper deposits and complement the Company's significant land holdings at Mouchalagane.
Exploration History and Mineral Potential
The properties lie within the Manicouagan Metamorphic Complex within the Grenville geological province. The metamorphic complex hosts several gabbroic plugs, ultramafic dykes and anorthositic intrusions, which intrude a granulitic assemblage. Nickel - copper mineralization consists of both massive sulphide breccia veins as well as disseminated sulphide zones. Limited drilling by Falconbridge Limited and Rockwell Ventures (who briefly optioned the HPM property in 2002) intersected intrusive hosted nickel - copper mineralization ranging from massive sulphide breccia veins assaying 2.74% nickel, 0.86% copper and 0.20% cobalt over 5.95 metres (Drill hole RCW-2004: 165.5 - 171.45 metres downhole) to broad zones of disseminated mineralization assaying 0.53% nickel, 0.27% copper and 0.04% cobalt over 28.60 metres (Drill hole 151-04: 175.80 to 204.40 metres downhole). These results are based on public records and have yet to be verified by a Qualified Person on behalf of Manicouagan.
Location and Ownership
In 2007, the properties were optioned by the Company from Pure Nickel Inc. To acquire its interest in the properties, Manicouagan has made an initial payment of $30,000 to Pure Nickel and during the first year of the agreement will compile all reasonably available data for the claims and will complete an airborne electromagnetic survey over the claims. Manicouagan has also issued 250,000 non-transferable warrants to purchase common shares of Manicouagan at a price of $0.40 per share for a period of two years.
To maintain the option in good standing and earn a fifty percent interest in the claims, Manicouagan must make further cash payments to Pure Nickel of $25,000 on the first and second anniversary of the agreement and incur expenditures on the property totaling $750,000 before the second anniversary of the agreement.
Manicouagan can earn an additional twenty percent interest by electing within 60 days of the second anniversary of the agreement to carry Pure Nickel during the next 12 months by expending an additional $1,500,000 on the property.
Once Manicouagan has earned an interest in the claims, a joint venture will be formed. Dilution is provided for if, after a joint venture is formed, a party fails to fund its pro rata share of expenditures. The parties have also agreed to an area of interest within a 5 kilometres radius of the outside boundaries of the 39 claims. Any claims held by the Company within the area of interest when the option is exercised will form part of the joint venture. Manicouagan currently holds an additional 179 claims in the vicinity of the HPM and Forgues properties.
Xstrata Nickel ("Xstrata") retains certain rights with respect to the mining claims (the 39 initial claims as well as to claims that could subsequently be acquired by Pure Nickel or Manicouagan within an area of interest) including (i) a 2% NSR on each property (Pure Nickel and Manicouagan, if it earns an interest having the right to reacquire 1% thereof for C$1,000,000); (ii) off-take and marketing rights for all concentrate or product produced from the properties; and (iii) a one time back-in right to 50% for any mining project with an economic threshold of 15,000,000 tonnes of resources unless such right has been previously exercised in respect of another property that was part of the Xstrata - Pure Nickel transaction.
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