More about Kipawa - Lac Sairs
Property Kipawa - Lac Sairs
THE PROPERTYKipawa-Lac Sairs proprety is a 100 % owned, 56 claim property of approximately 3,200 hectares (32 km2), located in Northwest Québec, 140 kilometers of Rouyn-Noranda and 100 kilometers northeast of North Bay (Ontario). Formerly explored by Fieldex Exploration in 2006 and 2007 for uranium, the property revealed instead, through sampling and a Phase 1 drilling campaign, a positive concentration of heavy rare earth as well as zirconium. Understanding at that time that the market for these metals offered a great potential, Fieldex Exploration’s team concentrated their efforts on the promising minerals ever since.
Recognized by experts for its rare earth occurrences, the area has been explored since 1957 but has not entered in rare earth elements commercial production to date. The property is partly adjacent to Matamec Explorations’ Zeus project and shares similar geological aspects with its neighbour. Matamec’s Zeus project is a high grade HREE-yttrium-zirconium-tantalum-niobium advanced project with a proven deposit, and is qualified as one of the four most interesting advanced rare earth projects in the world by the chemist and rare earth expert Jack Lifton.
Matamec’s Zeus deposit has indicated resources of 3.35 million tonnes at a grade of 0.58% total rare earth oxides with 0.89% zirconium and inferred resources of 6.48 million tonnes at a grade of 0.60% total rare earth oxides with 0.99% zirconium with a cut-off grade superior to 0.10% yttrium. The ratio of heavy rare earths + yttrium/total rare earths is 33% in the indicated resources and 34% in the inferred resources, with heavy rare earths defined as terbium to lutetium.
GEOLOGY
Kipawa-Lac Sairs is situated in the Kipawa alkaline complex, in the Temiscaming region. It occurs within the Kipawa basin in Proterozoic Grenville Province. The basin is interpreted as metamorphosed and folded sedimentary sequences that have been intruded by composite intrusive bodies. The most important intrusive rocks on the property, an alkaline intrusive complex, are also folded along with the sedimentary host rock.
WORK PLANNED FOR 2011
Spring and summer 2011 will mark an important step in Kipawa-Lac Sairs’ future as Fieldex Exploration engages a new diamond drilling campaign. This phase 3 drilling program, totaling approximately 2,500 meters, is aimed at finding and defining the extension of the hole LS-10-19 and to test numerous targets identified by prospecting and ground geophysical surveys. A ground magnetometric survey of 66.7 line-km as already been completed in March 2011.
WORK AND RESULTS
Since 2007, Kipawa-Lac Sairs has shown positive results through numerous exploration campaigns. With $1,888,900 invested in prospection, ground geophysical surveys and drilling campaigns on the property, Fieldex Exploration has discovered many heavy rare earth and zirconium anomalies such as the one exposed in 2010’s LS-10-19 hole (1.51% ZrO2 and 62.30 % HREO+Y2O3/TREO over 62 meters).
Exploration work chronology
2011
- Prospection and ground geophysical surveys (ground magnetometric survey)
- 2,000 meters drilling campaign
2010
- 4,225 meters (20 holes) diamond drilling campaign aimed at rare earth
2009
- Resampling of 2007’s core in order to verify the rare earth grades
2008
- Explosion of rare earth prices
2007
- 2,510 meters (10 holes) diamond drilling campaign aimed at gold and uranium
- Discovery of rare earth intersections