The project is located in Ontario just west of the Quebec-Ontario border and covers a 20 km portion of the felsic unit that hosts the former producing Normetal mine. The Normetal Mine, located relatively close to the provincial boundary but in Quebec, produced 10 Million tonnes grading 2.2% Cu, 5.4% Zn, 0.53 g/t Au and 44.5 g/t Ag over a 37 year mine life from 1938 to 1975. The deposit was found by surface prospecting and mined from surface to a depth of 2.4 kilometres. At current prices the ‘in situ’ value of the Normetal ore would be over $2.0 Billion, net of smelting and refining but before any cost to develop, mine and mill the deposit.
Extensive near surface exploration has been carried out in the Normetal belt, especially on the Quebec side. However, there has been significantly less exploration activity on the Ontario side of the belt. From past work, we know the whole belt of felsic rocks has been subject to relatively intense regional scale hydrothermal alteration of a type known to be associated with VMS deposits (carbonates, sericite, chloritoid). Analogies between the Sturgeon Lake-Mattabi belt in Ontario and the Normetal belt are well known in the scientific and exploration community.
In spite of the fact that VMS deposits typically occur as clusters of deposits, such as in the Noranda, Val d’Or, Matagami and Mattabi camps, no other deposit has yet been found in the Normetal belt. Yet, the scale of the alteration system, its ranking as per Cogitore’s proprietary alteration index system, the value of the old Normetal deposit itself, and the nature and chemical signature of the felsic volcanics hosting the mine are consistent with the earmarks of a prolific VMS camp which may host several deposits. Previous drilling in the 1960’s on a portion of the newly staked property yielded anomalous zinc and copper values hosted near a 3 kilometre long altered zone of favourable rhyolitic rocks.
Historically, the Normetal West project area has never been held as a single entity by any mining company but, instead, has been held as a large number of small independent projects by a number of companies, which may have precluded global understanding of the volcanic edifice and of mineralizing systems hosted in it. This new Cogitore property position thus offers a rather unique opportunity to explore with the newest technologies over 20 kilometres of an easily accessible and prolific mineralized belt.
This property acquisition is consistent with the Company’s strategy of assembling large property positions in established mineralized belts that benefit from easy access. Field work on the West Normetal project is planned to begin in May, 2007. Cogitore is pleased that Dr Benoit Lafrance, recognized as the expert on the Normetal belt for having done his Ph.D. thesis in addition to several years of field work on that belt, will be supervising exploration work on the West Normetal project.
©2007 Cogitore Resources Inc. All Rights Reserved.