Fresh perspective reveals platinum for junior.

One of northwestern Ontario's best-kept secrets has been revealed by MetalCORP Ltd., with a mineral exploration program that has identified two new platinum-palladium discoveries.

The Thunder Bay-based junior mining company found the deposit, located 10 kilometres southeast of Marathon, on their 100-per-cent-owned Big Lake Property. The area has significant copper and nickel deposits, but what was interesting to the exploration team was the two separate layers called J4 and J5 that contained a one to one ratio of platinum and palladium.

The average width of one reef (J4) is estimated to be 1.5 metres, bearing 0.51 grams per tonne (gpt) of platinum and 0.54 gpt of palladium, while the second layer or reef zone (J5) contains approximately two metres, with 0.81 gpt of platinum and 0.85 gpt of palladium.

"So far, we have drilled five holes and we have traced it for roughly two kilometres in strike length. We are still hitting it down 250 metres vertical," Aubrey Eveleigh, P. Geologist and vice-president of MetalCORP says.

"This is very exciting and we are quite pleased with the progress so far."

The precious metals were overlooked by mining companies large and small, since they were sniffing around for gold, not platinum.

"For that reason, they would have walked over it and would not have even assayed for it."

The Hemlo gold camp is less than 10 km northeast of the site where the Williams mine continues to be the largest gold producer in Canada. The area will undergo a third drilling program this year after the assays from the phase two drill have been evaluated.

Eveleigh based his first exploration project on the geological structure of the area. Once he saw the old volcanic rock located in the Mid-Continental Rift, he knew he was on to something. It was just a matter of hitting the right targets. The company invested in an airborne survey that displayed the geophysics, then the geochemical studies identified the targeted zones. "We drilled out conductors and found we were getting good copper, nickel and precious metals. So now we are off to the races."

Access to the property comes from an all-weather road located eight km from the Trans-Canada Highway. Hydro lines cross over the area and a potential deep water port could be developed within Pukaskwa National Park on Lake Superior that abuts MetalCORP's property.

He cautions the exploration phases represent just the beginning and much work will have to be done before moving onto bulk sampling, which could occur in three years. For now, Eveleigh is satisfied determining the overall value of rock per tonne.

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Canada's only producing PGE operation is North American Palladium's Lac des Iles Mine located near Thunder Bay. Platinum Group Metals recently announced a platinum palladium discovery 52 km southeast of that mine site.

Demand in the international marketplace is increasingly tight. Major mining companies have already called MetalCORP and confidentiality contracts have been signed. As the discovery shows more promise, talks amongst some of the heavyweights will become more frequent.

MetalCORP's discovery is comparable to promising reefs discovered in South Africa. The northwestern Ontario reefs show higher grades of copper and nickel, but the quality of platinum and palladium is somewhat lower. MetalCORP's third phase will begin in the next few weeks with a $1 million drill program.

By KELLY LOUISEIZE

Northern Ontario Business