THUNDER BAY, -- October 31, 2008 ---It all started when a few boulders in the Current Lake area tested positive for PMG. For prospectors, PMG stands for Platinum Metal group, which includes Platinum, Palladium, Copper and Nickel. Ever since the discovery of the boulders, the Australian junior mining company Magma Metals has been hot on the trail for the source of these boulders.

The boulders, located just west of Current Lake were angular in shape and quite large, indicating that they were close to their source. Only a force of nature such as glaciation would be powerful enough to move boulders this size. This kind of discovery gets geologists blood going. The potential was great enough that the company paid for a deep penetrating electro-magnetic survey of the Current Lake area. Sure enough the study showed an irregularity running the length of Current Lake and over to and south of Beaver Lake. Magma Metals is currently progressing a 30,000 metres resource definition diamond drilling programme over a 3 km strike of the Current Lake Intrusive Complex at Thunder Bay North.

In the short few years that Magma Metals have been exploring this deposit they have learned a lot about the history of this deposit. About 1,100 million years ago this part of the globe experienced some rifting or mountain building process. The land cracked and moved in the rifting process and magma rose up from the depths to fill the gaps. The ore in this deposit is associated with this activity. Through drilling and electro-magnetic surveys, these geologists have been able to track the magma flow to its source, and map some of the flow from the source.

The electro-magnetic survey has also indicated that this rifting process also occurred in areas to the west of Current Lake, and that the magma intrusion may have come from a similar source as the enriched peridotite deposits of Current and Beaver Lakes. Similar Intrusive complexes are also found at Steeplege Lake and Lone Island Lakes. The targets have been identified by the aerial electromagnetic surveys and Magma Metals is planning to begin a drilling program to see what these volcanic intrusions yield. In essence the two new sites are at the same state of development as Current Lake was about three years ago.

The Current Lake deposit is significant in it self. Drilling has also confirmed a 1 kilometer strike zone at Beaver Lake with high-grade deposits of PMG. With the promise of similar results from Steeplege Lake and Lone Island Lake, The Thunder Bay area could become important as one of the world’s significant producers of PMG.

Today the greatest use for palladium and platinum is for catalytic converters in automotive exhaust systems, its value as a catalyst will be enormous should fuel cells become a power source for future electric cars. In addition to Magma metals, the current Lac des Isles mine is a similar type of deposit. Further north and west in a geologic formation called the “Ring of Fire” deposits of PMG metals, diamonds and chrome have recently been reported.

As more knowledge of the geology of this area unfolds it is attracting the interest from the mining community world wide. The prospect that mining exploration and development will become an important part of our economy is both real and here to stay.

Bert Rowson
Reporting for
LakeSuperiorNews.com