Muskrat Dam
Muskrat Dam (Lithium, Copper-Nickel, Gold)
- Ownership: Option to earn 100% interest
- Location: Muskrat Dam Lake and Rottenfish River greenstone belts Ontario, Canada.
- Land package: 12,934 ha (129km2)
- Target commodities: Lithium, Copper-Nickel, Gold
Summary
The Muskrat Dam Project comprises six (6) property blocks in the highly prospective Muskrat Dam Lake (MDGB) and Rottenfish River (RRGB) greenstone belts
- includes the Axe Lake property, which shows potential to host lithium-bearing pegmatites and covers a major high-strain zone, the northwest-trending Axe Lake deformation zone (ALDZ)
- positions Platinex as a significant player in this new area of interest as critical mineral exploration activity increases in Ontario
Location and Access
Muskrat Dam is located approximately 125 km northeast of Frontier Lithium’s PAK lithium project and 125 km northwest of Newmont’s Musselwhite gold mine. Current access to the project is by winter road.
Geology and Mineralization
Project Geology
The Muskrat Dam Lake (MDGB) and Rottenfish River (RRGB) are Meso- to Neo-Archean (2.9-2.7 billion year old) greenstone belts that occur in the core Sachigo Terrane in the northwestern part of Superior Geological Province. The southeastern part of the MDGB may connect with the North Caribou Lake greenstone belt, which hosts Musselwhite Gold Mine. The MDGB and RRGB typically comprise volcano-sedimentary rock sequences. They are internally intruded by felsic and mafic to ultramafic sills, stocks, and dikes and bounded by external composite granitic batholiths.
These belts are deformed by an early D1 thrusting event causing the repetition of volcanic arc sequences from differing stratigraphic positions. The subsequent D2 deformation caused the D2 fold-parallel shears to separate the various volcano-sedimentary assemblages. The emplacement of the large batholiths surrounding the belt broadly warps the D2 fold axes within the belt. Several major northeast and northwest-striking fault/shear zones transect the MDGB and RRGB. From an economic point of view, the north-northeast-striking Windigo River Shear Zone (WRSZ) and a newly recognized, northwest-trending, regionally extensive Axe Lake Deformation Zone (ALDZ) occur respectively near/along the east-central and northwest margins of the MDGB. These structures are potential hosts to gold and copper mineralization. The ALDZ is hosting potentially lithium-bearing white pegmatites on the Axe Lake property.
Axe Lake Property
The Axe Lake property is situated at the north-central edge of the Muskrat Dam Lake greenstone belt along the contact with the Misquamaebin Lake batholith (MLGB), which is composed of many discrete composite plutons. Volcano-sedimentary rocks underlie the property, which is bounded on the northeast by the MLGB. The northwest-trending, regional “Axe Lake deformation zone” (ALDZ) passes through the property. The property hosts numerous white granitic pegmatites of potential lithium and rare metals mineralization. ALDZ potentially provided pathways for granitic melts and evolving pegmatites to be emplaced into volcano-sedimentary rocks on the property. Ayers (1969) describes the white pegmatites as dikes, sills, and lenses that commonly occur between Axe Lake and the Morrison River. These pegmatites typically consist of albite-oligoclase, quartz, muscovite, tourmaline, garnet, magnetite, and molybdenite. According to Ayers, the pegmatites have a maximum crystal size of 15 centimetres, and one of the pegmatite dikes, on a small island in the Severn River at the entrance of Axe Lake, contains fractured black tourmaline crystals up to 10 cm long.
The white muscovite-bearing pegmatites have also been intersected in a historic drill hole (#43455-0) located in the southeastern part of the property. These pegmatites occur within highly schistose and brecciated graywacke and gabbroic rocks.
Ayers also reported the presence of equigranular, garnetiferous, potassic muscovite-bearing postgabbro leucogranites and pegmatites elsewhere in the MDGB. The presence of these rocks along with white muscovite-bearing pegmatites indicates that the Muskrat Dam project presents a favourable environment for the presence of potential lithium-bearing pegmatites. According to Lewis and Patterson (2020), the geological setting of these rocks at the Muskrat Dam project is comparable with Frontier Lithium’s PAK lithium project which is situated near an intersection of three differing lithologies, mafic to intermediate metavolcanic muscovite-bearing granitic and metasedimentary rocks.
Windigo ‘A’ Property
The Windigo ‘A’ gold property is mainly underlain by massive to pillowed mafic flows and minor felsic to intermediate tuffs and sedimentary rocks. Narrow dikes, sill-like bodies of gabbro, and feldspar±quartz porphyries have been replaced concordant to volcano-sedimentary sequences. The north-to-northeast-trending WRSZ passes through and deforms all rock types. Gold is associated with pyrite-chalcopyrite in quartz vein lenses within sheared gabbro sills and volcano-sedimentary rocks. Historic grab sampling from a gossonous trench located within two 3rd-party held interior cell claims reportedly yielded up to 4.06 oz/t Au and 2% Cu (Murdy 1984, Assessment File #53G05SW0004 2.6245). Historical drilling by Canadian Occidental (1984) and Eldor Resources (1984-85) on the interior claims adjacent and north and south of the trenched area intersected visible gold (KP-2-84) and multiple anomalous gold intercepts (e.g., 0.186 oz/t over 2.4m – KP-4-84, 0.425 oz/t over 1.3m – KP-14-84, 0.128 oz/t over 3.0m – KP-85-21, and 0.480 oz/t over 0.3m – KP-85-21).
Fox Bay Property
A part of an extensive east-west-trending Fox Bay mafic-ultramafic sill (FBMS) underlies the property. The FBMS comprises crudely differentiated gabbro to diorite, anorthositic gabbro, and serpentinized peridotite. The sill has the potential to host Cu-Ni-PGE and chromium deposits. However, since it is highly underexplored, the economic potential needs to be thoroughly evaluated by modern geological, geochemical, and geophysical exploration methods. In the early 1970s, Canadian Onex and Serem Ltd drilled a few core holes on and adjacent to the property. The MDL-7, drilled by Canadian Onex, intersected serpentinized peridotite for 124 m of its total core length. Serpentinite contains traces of disseminated, fine-grained sulphides (mostly pentlandite and pyrite) that, from several core samples, yielded anomalous nickel (up to 0.4%) and copper (up to 0.10%). The property has not been explored since the mid-seventies.
Munekun Property
A package of a folded/refolded gabbroic sill, mafic metavolcanic rocks, and plagioclase-quartz porphyry underlies the property. The property can host shear-hosted gold, VMS, and magmatic Cu-Ni-PGE. In the early 1970s, the property was explored by Inco, which drilled the property and adjacent areas. Drilling revealed moderately to strongly sheared and altered volcano-sedimentary rocks, quartz-feldspar porphyries, and gabbro sills. Sulphide mineralization (py-po±cp) has been intersected in almost all drill holes. However, no assay results have been reported in drill logs or found in the public domain.
Windigo ‘B’ Property
This highly underexplored property is about 15 km south of Windigo ‘A’ gold property in the southeast part of the MDGB. A single short hole (#73-38-1, 91.44 m core length) by Serem Ltd. in 1973 was bored in the middle of the current claim block, intersecting mainly quartz-biotite and hornblende-chlorite schist alternating with chert beds (mafic tuffs with silicate facies iron formation?). The last one-quarter of the hole intersected moderately schistose metagreywacke. A 2.02 m breccia zone consisting of quartz-biotite-actinolite-chlorite schist cemented with pyrrhotite (5%) occurs at 63.76m-65.78m for which no assays are reported or available.
Rottenfish Property
Mafic metavolcanics with minor felsic metavolcanic and iron formation and gabbro sills underlie the property. Gold has been reported (Ayers 1969) in the Rottenfish River belt but is not known to occur on the property. No exploration to date is known to be conducted on the property; therefore, its economic potential can not be evaluated until at least some grass-roots exploration work, such as prospecting, mapping, and litho-geochemical sampling, is carried out.
Exploration History
Inco, Canadian Occidental, and other operators carried out historical exploration in the area during the 1970s and 1980s. However, the belt has seen little modern exploration, providing an excellent opportunity to make potential discoveries.
Ownership and Agreements
The Muskrat Dam Project is held through an option agreement between Platinex’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Endurance Elements Inc., and a private party. Platinex has the right to earn a 100%-ownership interest in the Muskrat Dam Project by paying $250,000 in cash and shares and completing $300,000 in work expenditures over three years. Additionally, up to $300,000 in cash and shares may be paid upon certain project milestones being met. The Muskrat Dam Project is subject to a 2% NSR royalty, one-half of which may be repurchased by Platinex at any time for $500,000.
